The ''Cherokee'' class of fleet tugboats, originally known as the ''Navajo'' class, were built for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

prior to the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. They represented a radical departure from previous ocean-going tug designs, and were far more capable of extended open ocean travel than their predecessors. This was due in large part to their length of , beam, and substantial fuel-carrying capacity. They were also the first large surface vessels in the United States Navy to be equipped with Diesel-electric drive. The first three vessels, , and , were constructed from 1938 to 1940 at the Bethlehem Staten Island division of

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succ ...

. ''Navajo'' and ''Seminole'' joined the Pacific fleet in 1940, and ''Cherokee'' went to the Atlantic fleet. ''Navajo'' was en route to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

from

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

on 7 December 1941, and immediately reversed course to Pearl Harbor once news broke of the Japanese attack. She became a critical element of salvage operations there, as did her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

''Seminole'', in the days following the attack. Following the loss during World War II of the first two ships of the class, ''Navajo'' and ''Seminole'', the class was renamed from its original pre-war name of ''Navajo'' class to ''Cherokee'' class, the name of the third ship laid in 1939, which still survived.

Ships

(*)Note: The reason for the gap in numbering from AT-95 to AT-153 is unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Navajo class fleet tug Auxiliary ship classes of the United States Navy Auxiliary tugboat classes

Ships

See also

References