 ROCS Da Gang (ex-Achomawi) seen in 2014.
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USS Achomawi |
| Ordered | 13 October 1943 |
| Builder | Charleston Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. |
| Laid down | 15 January 1944 |
| Launched | 14 June 1944 |
| Commissioned | 11 November 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 10 June 1947 |
| Stricken | 1 September 1962 |
| Fate | Transferred to Taiwan in 1991 |
 Taiwan | |
| Name |
|
| Acquired | 1991 |
| Identification | ATF-554 |
| Status | Active |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Abnaki-class tugboat |
| Displacement | 1,675 long tons (1,702 t) |
| Length | 205 ft (62 m) |
| Beam | 38 ft 6 in (11.73 m) |
| Draft | 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m) |
| Speed | 16.5 knots (19.0 mph; 30.6 km/h) |
| Complement | 6 officers, 71 enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USS Achomawi (AT-148/ATF-148) was an Abnaki-class fleet ocean tug in the service of the United States Navy, and was named for the Achomawi tribe of Native Americans.
Achomawi was laid down as AT-148 on 15 January 1944 at Charleston, South Carolina by Charleston Shipbuilding and Drydock, redesignated ATF-148 on 15 May 1944, and launched on 14 June 1944, sponsored by Mrs. J. F. Veronee. The ship was commissioned on 11 November 1944 at Charleston Navy Yard.
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Dugan Aguilar Oral History
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Transcription
My name's Robert Dugan Aguilar. I usually go by Dugan. My mom's side, Robert Larrie came from the Greenville Indian Valley Region. And my grandmother, Edna, she came from the Hat Creek area. And she's Pit River. And my dad's northern Paiute, a Walker River tribe in Nevada. We've always been a pretty good recognized family in the Susanville area. They actually -- I was thinking when I was asked some of these questions, we actually have a street named Larrie Street in Susanville that I was raised upon, that I grew up on because we stayed on my grandparent's -- or what we call the old family house -- for a few years until we moved into a new subdivision when I was in high school. We weren't really part of the Rancho Ria. But since then, my sister now lives in a Rancho Ria, my nephews live in a Rancho Ria, and they were recognized and have joined the Susanville Rancho Ria. Primarily for us, in Susanville it's where the Sierra Nevadas go up, come down to the high desert. And from there it's high sage brush. And so that's typically rabbit country. So Nevada -- I know I've heard this before -- that they primarily lived on, you know, jack rabbit. And then I think the second one was the deer, of course. You know, your venison and jerky, you know, dry that. And then fish, of course. You know, and all the lakes and streams were abundant. You know, at one time, even here in Elk Grove it's my understanding that the local tribe here was called Consumne. And so that's why the Consumnes River here runs right through town and it goes out to the Consumnes reserve. And that's -- I'm fortunate to go out once on the Consumnes reserve here, and I actually have some of the dwellings from the past. One thing about the natives is that they'd only killed what they needed, you know, to survive on. Whereas sometimes, I guess, westerners would come in and, you know, just kill everything off without thinking in regards of keeping the -- you know, keeping the [inaudible] replenished or in good solid state. I've always had an interest in cartography. At an early age I had a little Browning, and so we'd use that and capture a lot of just the family photos. And part of my photography stems from my parents. They kept wonderful photo albums. Whenever we'd would go back home to Susanville, we could always get out the photo albums and thumb through them. And as photos age they become more valuable. That's one thing. And part of that is just documenting my family in this kind of [inaudible] kind of went into a larger family. And that's a California native family, and also the natives from Nevada. There's something that happens when I look through my camera, I look through the viewfinder and it's very magical. Something happens when people are in there. And by asking them if I can make them comfortable and they finally let their picture go and it goes in that camera, I think it really does show up [inaudible]. I think it goes back to one of the old Indian beliefs that you actually do steal a piece of their spirit or whatever. And so I always try to tell people, "I don't want to steal your spirit but I just -- you know, if you want to lend it to me for a little while."
Service history
The tug departed Charleston on 28 November bound for the Chesapeake Bay for shakedown training. She then entered the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, for post-shakedown availability. Late in December, Achomawi arrived back at Charleston but soon sailed for Wilmington, North Carolina to pick up ARDC-J for towing to the west coast. The tug transited the Panama Canal late in January 1945 and continued on to San Pedro, California where she arrived on 17 February. Achomawi operated along the west coast through 3 March. On that day, she got underway from San Francisco bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with two pontoon barges in tow. Upon her arrival in Hawaiian waters on 16 March, the tug commenced target towing and mooring duties in the Pearl Harbor area and remained at the task until 22 May, when she shaped a course to Okinawa with three barges in tow. She made stops at Eniwetok and Guam before reaching Okinawa on 1 July. The vessel then assisted in moving Service Division 104 from Kerama Retto to Buckner Bay, Okinawa. She set sail on 12 July with a convoy bound for Guam.
Achomawi reached Guam on 17 July and, five days later, got underway for Eniwetok. At that atoll, she assumed duty with Service Division 102 and operated there through the end of World War II in mid-August. On 15 October, she shaped a course for Tokyo, Japan. The tug arrived there 10 days later and departed Japanese waters on 9 November, bound for Ulithi. At that atoll, the tug took oil tanker USS <i>Malvern</i> <span class="nowrap">(IX-138)</span> in tow and got underway for the Philippine Islands. She reached Manila on 19 November and operated in the Luzon area through 6 December. Later that month, Achomawi attempted to tow three barges from Samar, Philippine Islands, to Okinawa. En route, two broke loose due to heavy seas and were lost. The third capsized due to shifting cargo and had to be destroyed. The tug finally arrived at Okinawa on 29 December. On 12 January 1946, Achomawi got underway for the west coast of the United States. She made port calls at Eniwetok, Kwajalein, Johnston Island, and Pearl Harbor. The tug finally made San Francisco on 3 March.
Achomawi departed California in early April to return to the western Pacific to support Operation "Crossroads," which involved atomic testing at Bikini Atoll. Following the Able test on 1 July, the tug attempted to take the heavily damaged Japanese light cruiser Sakawa in tow, in an effort to beach the vessel. A tow line was connected, but as Achomawi prepared to get underway the cruiser began to sink. The Sakawa threatened to pull the tug under with her own tow wire, but quick-acting sailors were able to sever the wire with an acetylene torch before damage resulted. The cruiser went to the bottom with a portion of Achomawi's tow wire still attached. Throughout the remainder of the operation the tug carried out various towing assignments between Pearl Harbor, Bikini, Eniwetok, and Kwajalein, and was released in August. Achomawi left Hawaii on 14 September, and arrived in San Francisco Bay on 2 October, where it underwent radiological decontamination.[1]
Early in December, Achomawi received orders to proceed to the Panama Canal Zone. She touched at Balboa, Panama, on 29 December and picked up ARD-6 for towing to Jacksonville, Florida. The tug then transited the canal and reached Jacksonville on 4 January 1947. After delivering her tow, she set a course for New Orleans, Louisiana. Upon her arrival on 9 January, the ship entered preinactivation availability. Achomawi completed this in early March and got underway on 9 March for Orange, Texas. She was decommissioned there on 10 June 1947 and was laid up at Orange. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September 1962. The vessel was then transferred to the Maritime Administration and was laid up at Mobile, Alabama.
Achomawi was removed from the reserve fleet in June of 1987, and towed to Bethlehem Shipyard for repairs. She returned from the shipyard the following month. In 1991, the ship was sold to the government of Taiwan, where she entered service with the Republic of China Navy as ROCS Da Gang (ATF-554). The vessel is in active service as of 2013.
References
This article includes information collected from the public domain sources Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships and Naval Vessel Register.
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This page was last edited on 11 December 2023, at 01:39