USNS Mohawk (T-ATF-170)

USNS ''Mohawk'' (T-ATF-170) was a United States Navy operated by the Military Sealift Command from 1980 to 2005.

Construction and characteristics

The contract for the first four ''Powhatan''-class tugs was awarded to Marinette Marine Co. on 12 September 1975. The Navy exercised its option to buy an additional three ships under this contract on 27 February 1978. ''Mohawk'' was the first ship delivered under the contract extension.

''Mohawk'' was laid down on 23 March 1979 at the company's Marinette, Wisconsin shipyard. She was launched on 5 April 1980, and delivered to the Navy on 16 October 1980.

Her hull was built of welded steel plates. She was long at the waterline and overall, with a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced 2,260 tons fully loaded.

As originally built, ''Mohawk'' had two controllable-pitch Kort-nozzle propellers for propulsion. She had two 20-cylinder Diesel engines, GM EMD 20-645F7B, which provided 4,500 shaft horsepower. These would drive the ships at 15 knots. She also had a 300-horsepower bow thruster to improve maneuverability.

Electrical power aboard the ship was provided by three 400 Kw generators. These were powered by four Detroit Diesel 8v-71 engines.

''Powhatan''-class tugs had global range in order to support the U.S. fleet across oceans. ''Mohawk's'' tankage was consequently large. She could carry of Diesel oil, of lube oil, and of drinking water. Her unrefueled range at 13 knots was

''Mohawk's'' aft deck was largely open to accommodate a number of different roles. It had of working space. One of the missions of a fleet tug was to tow disabled warships back to port. She was equipped with a SMATCO 66 DTS-200 towing winch for service as a towboat. The towing system could accommodate either wire rope or synthetic-fiber hawsers and produce as much as 90 short tons of bollard pull. She had a 10-ton capacity crane for moving loads on the aft deck. There were connections to bolt down shipping containers and other equipment.

Like all MSC ships, ''Mohawk'' was crewed by civilian mariners. At launch, her complement was 16 civilian crew and a 4-person military detachment of communications specialists. The ship could accommodate an additional 16 people aboard for transient, mission-specific roles.

All the ships of the ''Powhatan''-class were named after Native American tribes. ''Mohawk'' was named after the Mohawk people, of southeastern Canada and northern New York.

Service history

In February 1982 ''Mohawk'' was used as a dive platform to investigate the crash of an F-4E Phantom II in shallow water 30 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. The sea was so stormy that two dives had to be abandoned because the ship was dragging her 2,500 pound stern anchor. She came back to Charleston and borrowed a 4-ton anchor from USCGC ''Escape'' before heading back to the crash site. ''Mohawk'' was ultimately successful in recovering portions of the plane.

She towed floating drydock pontoons from Charleston, South Carolina to Holy Loch, Scotland in 1982.

During the Fall of 1985 and the winter of 1985-1986 ''Mohawk'' was deployed to the Caribbean to track and report on suspicious vessels as part of the war on drugs.

''Mohawk'' departed the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 1 August 1986 with ex-''Wisconsin'' in tow. They were accompanied by USS ''Edenton''. They arrived in New Orleans on 15 August where ex-''Wisconsin'' was put into drydock at the Avondale shipyard as a step towards reactivation.

On 15 December 1987 the Kuwaiti oil tanker ''Qarouh'' collided with the Panamanian freighter ''Explorer'' about 700 miles off the coast of Florida. ''Mohawk'' was the first vessel on the scene of the accident and took all 29 members of the tanker's crew aboard since ''Qarouh'' appeared to be sinking.

On 28 January 1989, ''Mohawk'' worked with USNS ''Grasp'' to pull the grounded USS ''Spruance'' off a coral reef near Andros Island, in the Bahamas.

Public tours of ''Mohawk'' were offered on 24-25 March 1990 at the Port Canaveral Seafood Festival, on 19 May 1991 at the Washington Navy Yard, and in October 1992 as part of the Wilmington, North Carolina Riverfest. This was an effort to recruit mariners into the Military Sealift Command.

In the fall of 1992, ''Mohawk'' exercised with the Royal Navy frigate HMS ''Lancaster'' off Virginia Beach. ''Mohawk'' towed Empress II, which generated high-power microwave pulses, in order to test the electronic hardening of the British ship. Over the course of 12 days, ''Lancaster'' was able to operate within 200 yards of Empress II without significant damage.

During the spring of 1993, ''Mohawk'' worked with USNS ''Grasp'', USNS ''Grapple'', and Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two to raise the coastal freighter ''Wendy''. The wreck was leaking fuel which threatened the world's second largest coral reef system and blocked a harbor mouth on the Honduran island Roatan.

On 3 April 1993, ''Mohawk'' recovered the wreckage of an F-15 that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. The parts of the aircraft were loaded onto LCAC 058 which brought them to Tyndall Air Force Base for the crash investigation.

In February 1995, ''Mohawk'' recovered the wreckage of a T-34C Turbo Mentor that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico off Corpus Christi.

In June 1995, ''Mohawk'' towed ex-''Inchon'' from Naval Station Ingleside, Texas to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.

''Mohawk'' towed ex-''Mississippi'' from Norfolk to the Panama Canal in March 1998. Here the tow was taken over by USNS ''Navajo'' which took the ship on to Bremerton, Washington. The ship returned to Norfolk to take USS ''Sam Rayburn'' (MTS-635) under tow on 31 March 1998.

On 10 October 1999 ''Mohawk'' took ex-''Guadalcanal'' in tow at the Naval Inactive Ship Facility in Philadelphia with the intent to move her to Hampton Roads, Virginia. The tow was mishandled and ''Mohawk's'' tow-guide assembly broke apart and injured one of her crew.

''Mohawk'' was dispatched to waters off Nantucket in November 1999 to investigate the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. On this mission she teamed with USNS ''Grapple'', and NOAAS ''Whittng''.

''Mohawk'' towed ex-''Guam'' from Norfolk Naval Shipyard to an exercise area in the Atlantic. The old amphibious assault ship was sunk by the carrier air wing of USS ''John F. Kennedy'' on 16 October 2001.

During June 2004, ''Mohawk'' towed ex-''Leahy'' from the Panama Canal to the Naval Inactive Shipp Maintenance Facility in Beaumont, Texas.

Sixth Fleet deployments

''Mohawk'' was regularly deployed to the Mediterranean to support Sixth Fleet operations as a towing, diving, and salvage asset.

1995: In September, ''Mohawk'' moored in Constanta, Romania in support of Exercise Poseidon '95. The embarked Detachment Bravo of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two trained with its Romanian counterparts on diving and salvage techniques. Other port calls included Mahon, Spain.

1998: Port calls included Rhodes, Greece.

2000-2001: The deployment was for six months. Detachment Alpha of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two was embarked. ''Mohawk'' completed a joint exercise with Bulgarian divers in the waters off Varna, Bulgaria, and similar exercises in Egypt, and Croatia. Other port calls included La Maddelena, Sardinia, Valletta, Malta, and Palma de Majorca.

2003: Port calls included Valletta, Malta.

2005: Port calls included La Spezia, Italy.

Deactivation

''Mohawk'' was taken out of service on 16 August 2005 and placed in reserve in the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At one point, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency authorized her sale to the Chilean Navy for $3 million under the Excess Defense Article program. On 16 May 2016 this authority was revoked. As of January 2018, the U.S. Maritime Administration, which manages retired Navy ships, was planning to scrap ''Mohawk''.

Awards and honors

''Mohawk'' and her crew earned a number of awards and honors. These include:

* Armed Forces Service Medal in 1996
* Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation award in 1995
* Navy "E" ribbon in 1981, 1982, and 1989
* Military Sealift Command's "Smart Ship" award in 1982 as the top ship of her class.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohawk
Tugs of the United States Navy
Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States
Ships built by Marinette Marine
1980 ships