USS ''ATA-216'' was an of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

built in 1944. Originally

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

as the net tender ''Allthorn'' of the , she was redesignated before being launched. The ship was commissioned on 30 October 1944. ''ATA-216'' had a brief naval career, and was decommissioned on 26 March 1946.

Construction

Originally planned as the ''Allthorn'' (YN-94), she was laid down on 31 October 1943 at

Slidell, Louisiana Slidell is a city on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 28,781 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the sixteenth-most ...

by the Canulette Shipbuilding Company. On 20 January 1944 she was redesignated as an auxiliary net laying ship, ''Allthorn'' (AN-70), and launched on 27 May. On 12 August her name was cancelled, she was again repurposed, to the ATA-214-class auxiliary ocean tug ''ATA-216'', and commissioned as such on 30 October 1944.

Naval service

''ATA-216'' served in the

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and, after the surrender of Japan, briefly in the Occupation Service in the Far East, until 20 October 1945. The tug was decommissioned on 26 March 1946 and later struck from the

Navy List A Navy Directory, Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a co ...

Commercial service

In 1948 the tug was sold to unidentified American interests and renamed ''Kara Gay'', and then registered in 1951 to Walter H Wilms & Company of Portland, Oregon, allocated

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

262382, and renamed ''El Sol''. After three years she was bought by the Portland Tug & Barge Company, and then resold in 1956 to the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based De Long Corporation, which registered her in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

, still with the same name, ''El Sol''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ATA-216 ATA-214-class tugs Ships built in Slidell, Louisiana 1944 ships World War II auxiliary ships of the United States