USS ''Umpqua'' (ATA-209), originally designated ATR-136, was laid down as ''ATA-209'' on 15 December 1944 at

Port Arthur, Texas Port Arthur is a city in the state of Texas, United States of America, located east of metro Houston. Part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, the city lies primarily in Jefferson County, with a small extension in Orange County. ...

, by

Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works Gulfport Shipbuilding Corporation (also called Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works) was a shipbuilding company at Port Arthur, Texas, formed as ''Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works'' opened in 1930. For World War II Gulfport built Tank Barges a Type B ...

; launched on 2 February 1945; and commissioned on 2 April 1945. She was the third

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 ...

ship named for the

Umpqua River The Umpqua River ( ) on the Pacific coast of Oregon in the United States is approximately long. One of the principal rivers of the Oregon Coast and known for bass and shad, the river drains an expansive network of valleys in the mountains west ...

, which was named for the Umpqua, a tribe of American Indians. Following shakedown in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, ''ATA-209'' reported on the last day of April to Service Force, Atlantic. On 19 May, the auxiliary ocean tug departed

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

towing YF-756. She steamed via the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

and

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, arriving at

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 Reci ...

early in July. AFDM3centersectionlaterYFD-6floatedPanamaCanal

She operated on towing assignments between the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

and the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

until October when she set her course via

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and the Panama Canal for Charleston. Arriving on 27 November, she reported to the Commandant,

6th Naval District United States Naval Districts is a system created by the United States Navy to organize military facilities, numbered sequentially by geographic region, for the operational and administrative control of naval bases and shore commands in the Unit ...

, for duty; and, in April 1946, she was permanently assigned to that command. On 16 July 1948, she was named ''Umpqua''. Her primary job was that of towing ships, barges, and gunnery targets. She also participated in rescue and recovery operations. Her routine duties were performed mostly along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, and they occasionally took the tug as far north as

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

. In the 1950s, she took part in calibration of radio navigation systems; and, in the 1960s, she assisted in oceanographic operations towing ''MONOB I'', aka USS Monob One (YAG-61), the

Bureau of Ships The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships (BuShips) was established by Congress on 20 June 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) and the Bureau of Engineering (BuEng). The new bureau was ...

' mobile sound lab, to study sites in the Caribbean. In 1965, she varied her duties with the retrieval of a

Titan III Titan was a family of United States expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. The Titan I and Titan II were part of the US Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet until 1987. The space launch vehicle versions contribu ...

rocket booster in support of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

tests. On two occasions, she towed old

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...

hulls loaded with unserviceable ammunition to a disposal area in the Atlantic where the ammunition was detonated, and the hulls were sunk. In July 1967, ''Umpqua'' was transferred to the Service Force, Atlantic Fleet, and was assigned to Service Squadron 8. ''Umpqua'' continued her towing duties, assisting disabled and damaged naval vessels. Occasionally, she participated in

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

recovery and

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

-planting in conjunction with exercises of various Atlantic Fleet units. In May and June 1970, she towed

USS Darby (DE-218) Darby may refer to: Places United States * Darby, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Darby, Montana, a town * Darby, North Carolina, an unincorporated community * Darby Township, Madison County, Ohio * Darby Township, Pickaway County, Ohio ...

and

USS Tweedy (DE-532) USS ''Tweedy'' (DE-532) was a in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 and from 1952 to 1969. She was sunk as a target in 1970. Namesake Albert William Tweedy Jr., was born on 22 March 1920 and attended public schools in Winnetk ...

to sea for use as targets for destruction. In 1971, as her career with the United States Navy drew to a close, ''Umpqua'' took part in Operation Springboard one last time and made one of her longest tows when she pulled

ammunition ship An ammunition ship is an auxiliary ship specially configured to carry ammunition, usually for naval ships and aircraft. An ammunition ship's cargo handling systems, designed with extreme safety in mind, include ammunition hoists with airlocks bet ...

USS ''Great Sitkin'' (AE-17) 120 miles to

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

after the ship had gone dead in the water at sea. In June 1971, ''Umpqua'' began training a

Colombian Navy The Colombian Navy, officially the Colombian National Navy (), also known as the ''"Armada Nacional"'' or just the ''"Armada"'' in Spanish, is the naval branch of the Military Forces of Colombia, military forces of Colombia. The Navy is responsi ...

crew in preparation for the transfer of the tug. On 1 July, she was decommissioned; her name was 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 ...

; and she was turned over to the government of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

under the

Military Assistance Program The Mutual Defense Assistance Act was a United States Act of Congress signed by President Harry S. Truman on October 6, 1949. For U.S. foreign policy, it was the first U.S. military foreign aid legislation of the Cold War era, and initially to ...

ARC ''Bahia Honda'' (RM-74)

Sold to Colombia on 1 July 1971, the ship served in the Armada Nacional Colombiana as ARC ''Bahia Honda'' (RM-74). She ran aground in 1975 and was subsequently scrapped.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Umpqua (ATA-209) Sotoyomo-class tugs 1944 ships Ships built in Port Arthur, Texas Bahia Honda