USFS Osprey

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USFS Osprey
USFS Osprey in 1914
United States
NameSS Wigwam
NamesakeWigwam, a term used for a semi-permanent domed dwelling used by certain indigenous peoples of the Americas in the northeastern United States or Canada
OwnerAlaska Packers' Association
Completed1895
FateSold to U.S.
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
autumn 1912
NotesOperated as commercial cannery tender
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
NameUSFS Osprey
NamesakeOsprey, a piscivorous bird of prey of the genus Pandion in the family Pandionidae
AcquiredAutumn 1912
CommissionedSometime between 1 and 8 July 1913 (see text)
FateSold on 14 April or 29 June 1921 (see text)
United States
NameFoss No. 19
Namesake
Foss Launch and Tug Company
Owner
Foss Launch and Tug Company
Acquired1922
FateSold 14 May 1965
Notes
  • Converted to
    motor vessel
    1922
  • Operated as commercial tug
United States
NameKiowa
OwnerPat Stoppleman
Acquired14 May 1965
FateSold 1967
NotesOperated as commercial tug
United States
NameKiowa
NamesakePrevious name retained
OwnerSamson Tug & Barge
Acquired1967
FateSank 30 October 1978
NotesOperated as commercial tug
General characteristics (as BOF fishery patrol vessel)
Type
patrol vessel
Tonnage
Length72 ft (21.9 m)
Beam17 ft (5.2 m)
Draft6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion1 × 85 
kW) compound steam engine, Scotch boiler, and dynamo connected directly to a high-speed Corliss engine, 7.5 tons coal
Speed8–10 knots (15–19 km/h; 9.2–11.5 mph) (average)
Range350 nmi (650 km; 400 mi)
General characteristics (as commercial motor tug)
TypeTug
Tonnage
Length72 ft (21.9 m)
Beam17.3 ft (5.3 m)
Depth7.1 ft (2.2 m)
Propulsion

USFS Osprey was an American

motor tug
with the name Foss No. 19 from 1922 to 1965 and with the name Kiowa from 1965 until she sank in 1978.

Early history

The vessel was constructed as the 72-foot (21.9 m)

Alaska Packers Association, she became one of the first cannery tenders to operate in Alaska.[1] At some point prior to her U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) service, the Alaska Packers Association rebuilt her to a high standard based on recommendations made by the Steamboat Inspection Service.[1]

Bureau of Fisheries

Acquisition and characteristics

After the

patrol vessels under the BOF.[2]

In the autumn of 1912, the BOF purchased Wigwam from the Alaska Packers Association for US$13,000 for use as the BOF's first fishery patrol vessel in what by then was the

kW) compound steam engine which gave her an average speed of 8 to 10 knots (15 to 19 km/h; 9.2 to 11.5 mph).[1] Her dynamo was connected directly to a high-speed Corliss steam engine.[1] For fuel, she could carry 7.5 tons of coal.[1]

Before placing Osprey

Semiahmoo, Washington.[1] The appropriation for a crew came into effect on 1 July 1913,[1] and the BOF quickly relaunched Osprey at Semiahmoo, assigned a crew of six to her,[1] commissioned her,[2]
and prepared her for her first voyage to Alaska as a BOF vessel.

Operational history

Osprey departed Washington on 8 July 1913 to steam north for her first season as a BOF patrol vessel in Alaskan waters.[1] She was assigned Southeast Alaska as her operating area, with her home port at Juneau, Territory of Alaska, and by the end of 1913 had logged 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) as a BOF vessel.[1] Each summer, she enforced salmon-fishing laws and regulations in Southeast Alaska.[1]

The BOF soon encountered difficulties in operating Osprey as a patrol vessel.[1] The Congressional appropriation to pay her crew required them to pay their own mess bills aboard ship, leaving crew members without enough pay left over to make employment aboard Osprey worthwhile, so crewing her with competent personnel was difficult.[1] She could carry only 7.5 tons of coal, giving her only a 350-nautical-mile (650 km; 400 mi) radius, far too small to patrol the districts assigned to her in a large area like Alaska, and coal was expensive in Alaska, costing US$8.50 to US$12.75 a ton.[1] As a coal-burner, she emitted a cloud of smoke from her stack that could be seen at a significant distance, and with few steam cannery tenders in service in Alaska, the sight of smoke on the horizon was almost a sure sign of the approach of Osprey, giving fishery violators ample time to evade detection and interception.[1] Her aging boiler, installed when she was built in 1895, required constant maintenance – although the BOF never replaced it – and her seaworthiness was in question.[1] The BOF's deputy commissioner, Ernest Lester Jones, spent 60 days aboard her in 1914[1] and – noting that she had only 1 foot (0.3 m) of freeboard amidships, a height of 14 feet (4.3 m) from her main deck to the top of her pilothouse, and most of her machinery above the waterline – reported that she was top-heavy, on one occasion in the autumn of 1914 rolling without warning onto her side in a strong wind, causing her engine room to flood.[1] He described her as unseaworthy, confined to her dock on many days when her boiler was in need of maintenance, and dangerously unstable, unable to leave port whenever a strong wind was blowing.[1] In 1915, after two inspectors found Osprey to be in a poor state of repair, the BOF believed that she would be condemned at Ketchikan, Territory of Alaska, but she avoided this fate and remained in service.[1]

In the spring of 1916, Osprey took part in stream investigation work at Wrangell, Territory of Alaska. After spending the summer of 1916 on her normal salmon enforcement duties in Southeast Alaska, she departed for Seattle, Washington, in October 1916 to undergo repairs there.[1] She remained in Seattle for the rest of 1916 and throughout 1917.[1]

In January 1918, Osprey finally returned to Alaska. In the late spring of 1918 she came to the assistance of the boat Good Tidings, which had broken down during a storm, and towed her 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) to Ketchikan.[1] After the Canadian passenger liner SS Princess Sophia ran aground on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal near Juneau, Territory of Alaska, and sank in a storm on 25 October 1918 with the loss of all 343 people on board[3] – the worst maritime disaster in the combined history of Alaska and British Columbia – Osprey joined the BOF fishery patrol vessels USFS Auklet and USFS Murre in a fruitless search for survivors that lasted into November 1918.[4]

In June 1919, the BOF transferred Osprey to

hull cleaned and copper painted in preparation for patrol work in the 1920 season, but on 25 May 1920 she settled into the gravel on the beach, rolled away from the shore onto her side, filled with water, and became partially submerged.[1] About a week later, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Algonquin (WPG-75) arrived to help. Osprey was refloated using a Bering River Coal Company scow and the water was pumped out of her.[1] She patrolled off Southeast Alaska during the summer of 1920 and in September 1920 took part in salmon stream marking, bringing her BOF Alaska service to a close.[1] In early 1921, USFS Auklet towed her to Seattle to be sold.[1][4]

According to a press report, Osprey was sold for US$550 at a

public auction held in Seattle on 14 April 1921,[1] but a May 1921 BOF bulletin claimed that the highest bid on 14 April, US$515, was too low, and the ship was not sold until a second auction on 29 June 1921 resulted in a winning bid of US$700.[1]

Later career

After her sale, the vessel became a commercial

Foss Launch and Tug Company, which rebuilt her to improve seaworthiness and replaced her steam engine and boiler with a 180-horsepower (134 kW) Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine.[1] Renamed Foss No. 19, she performed tug and towing services in both Puget Sound and Southeast Alaska, based at Ketchikan during her Alaska operations.[1] She was the first Foss vessel to operate in Alaska.[1] In the late 1930s, she began annual voyages to haul oil to communities in Southeast Alaska.[1] Her engine was replaced around 1940 with a new 200-horsepower (149 kW) Enterprise diesel engine powerful enough to allow Foss No. 19 to win many of the tug races she competed in during the 1950s.[1]

On 14 May 1965, Foss sold Foss No. 19 to Pat Stoppleman.[1] Stoppleman renamed her Kiowa and replaced her engine with a Caterpillar D343 diesel engine.[1] In 1967, Stoppleman sold Kiowa to Samson Tug & Barge, which based her at Sitka, Alaska.[1]

Loss

While towing a raft of logs to Wrangell, Alaska, with the Samson tug Calumet in Southeast Alaska on 29 October 1978, Kiowa suffered damage during a storm.[5] Calumet towed her to Herring Bay (57°07′N 134°22′W / 57.117°N 134.367°W / 57.117; -134.367 (Herring Bay)) on Frederick Sound in the Alexander Archipelago.[5] The two tugs were still there on 30 October 1978, when the log booms broke up in bad weather, scattering the logs, and some of the logs tore open Kiowa's stern.[1][5] The 83-year-old Kiowa sank in 30 feet (9.1 m) of water without loss of life.[1][5] Calumet rescued her crew.[1][5] Kiowa was valued at US$80,000 at the time of her loss.[5]


References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center AFSC Historical Corner: Osprey, BOF's first Alaska patrol boat
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center AFSC Historical Corner: Early Fisheries Enforcement Patrol Boats (1912-39)
  3. ^ "Report of wreck of Princess Sophia". RG 42, Marine Branch, Series B-1, Volume 290, File 47799, pt. 2. Marine Branch. 14 February 2006. Retrieved 7 December 2008.
  4. ^ a b AFSC Historical Corner: Auklet and Murre, 1917 Sister Patrol Vessels Retrieved September 17, 2018
  5. ^ a b c d e f alaskashipwreck.com Alaska Shipwrecks (K)
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