Ojibwa, 1944 (WYT-97)

March 6, 2021
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Ojibwa, 1944

WYT-97


A tribe of Native Americans that inhabit the region of both the U.S. and Canada around Lake Superior.


Builder: Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Brooklyn, New York

Length: 110'

Beam: 26' 5"

Draft: 11' 6"

Displacement: 384 tons (fl)

Cost: $622,677

Launched: 10 September 1943

Commissioned: 7 April 1944

Decommissioned: April, 1980

Disposition: Sold

Machinery: 1 x electric motor driven by 2 Elliot Electric Company generators driven by 2 Ingersoll Rand 8-cylinder diesels; single propeller.

Electronics: SO-2 radar (1945)

Complement: 16

Armament: 2 x 20mm/80 (single-mount; 1944)


Class History:

These 110-foot tugs were contracted for on 8 June 1941.  Their design was based on an earlier 110-foot Calumet-class design which had entered commissioned service beginning in 1934.  The newer design simply incorporated changes needed for operations in Greenland waters as well as better fire-fighting capabilities.


Cutter History:

The Ojibwa was launched on 10 September 1943 and was commissioned on 26 November 1943.  She was assigned to the 1st District and was based out of Boston.  She was used for law enforcement and search and rescue patrols, fire fighting and light icebreaking when needed.

On 29 November 1951 she assisted following the collision between the motor vessel Ventura and the fishing vessel Lynn near Boston.  From 1954 to August 1979 she was stationed at Buffalo, New York.  In February 1965 she broke ice in the Buffalo area during a particularly harsh winter.  On 4 May 1965 she sustained engine casualty near Buffalo while breaking ice and she was towed to port by the cutter Kaw.  In January 1968 she experimented with the icebreaking plow Alexbow in the Great Lakes.  From August 1979 until April 1980 she was converted from fresh- to salt-water operations but plans for her to be stationed at Yorktown, Virginia as a training vessel were cancelled.

She was decommissioned in April, 1980, and was sold on 22 December of that year.


Sources:

Cutter History File.  USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.

Robert Scheina.  U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II.  Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.

Robert Scheina.  U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946-1990.  Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.