USCGC ''Raritan'' (WYT-93/WYTM-93) was a

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

harbor tug that was in service from 1939 to 1988. She served on the Greenland Patrol during World War II and after the war on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

. From 1980 until decommissioning she was homeported at

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk ...

Construction

''Raritan'' was built for the Coast Guard by Defoe Boat Works,

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city in Bay County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 32,661 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is located just upriver from the Saginaw Bay on the Saginaw River. It is the princip ...

, at a cost of 309,000 and was launched alongside her sister cutter on 23 March 1939, the first dual launching to ever take place in Bay City. She was one of four ''Arundel''-type 110 foot light icebreaking tugs built in 1939, the design of which was taken from the successful 1934 ''Calumet''-type 110 foot tug design.Scheina (1982), p 74 ''Raritan'' was capable of breaking ice up to thick. After commissioning on 11 April 1939, she was assigned harbor duties at

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

History

World War II

Germany invaded Denmark on 9 April 1940 and then laid claim to Denmark's crown colony, Greenland. The

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

immediately began negotiations with

Henrik Kauffmann Henrik Kauffmann (26 August 1888 – 5 June 1963) was the Danish ambassador to the United States during World War II, who signed over part of Greenland to the US. Career Kauffmann started his foreign career by serving as envoy in Rome, 1921� ...

, the Danish

government-in-exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovereign state or semi-sovereign state, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usu ...

representative in Washington, D.C. and Eske Brun, the Governor of Greenland to preserve Greenland's

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

. An agreement was reached on 3 May where Greenland requested U.S. protection. Because of the Coast Guard's experience with the

International Ice Patrol The International Ice Patrol is an organization with the purpose of monitoring the presence of icebergs in the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, Arctic oceans and reporting their movements for safety purposes. It is operated by Unite ...

and because it operated the only ships that were equipped to handle ice conditions in Greenland waters, the State Department requested Coast Guard assistance in enforcing claims of sovereignty and to prevent Germany from taking control of the

cryolite Cryolite ( Na3 Al F6, sodium hexafluoroaluminate) is a rare mineral identified with the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, mined commercially until 1987. It is used in the reduction ("smelting") of aluminium, in pest ...

mines at Ivittuut and establishing weather stations on the Eastern coastline. In August, ''Raritan'' along with the cutters , , and joined Ice Patrol cutters and as the first cutters assigned to the Greenland Patrol.Walling, p 6 ''Raritan'' was transferred to U.S. Navy control on 1 November 1941 by Executive Order 8929 which transferred the entire Coast Guard from the United States Department of the Treasury to the United States Navy. Raritan continued to be homeported at Boston under U.S. Navy control but was manned by Coast Guard personnel.

Post-war service

After the Coast Guard was returned to the Treasury Department on 1 January 1946 in accordance with Executive Order 9666, ''Raritan'' continued to operate in Boston Harbor. She was subsequently transferred to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. and in 1962 she was assigned to the

and her home port was

Grand Haven, Michigan Grand Haven is a city within the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Ottawa County, Michigan, Ottawa County. Grand Haven is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand River (Michigan), Grand River, for which ...

. ''Raritan'' was decommissioned from Coast Guard service on 14 May 1988.

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

References used

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raritan (WYT-93) Ships of the United States Coast Guard 1939 ships World War II auxiliary ships of the United States Tugs of the United States Navy Ships built in Bay City, Michigan Arundel-class tugs