USCGC Tamaroa (WMEC-166) – Wikipedia

Coast guard cutter
For other ships with the same name, see USCGC Tamaroa
USCGC Tamaroa (WAT/WMEC-166), primitively the United States Navy Cherokee -class evanesce tug USS Zuni (ATF-95), was a United States Coast Guard stonecutter. Following the U.S. Coast Guard custom-made of naming cutters in this class of ship after native american tribe, she was named after the Tamaroa tribe of the Illiniwek tribal group .

construction and U.S. Navy functional history [edit ]

The ship was one of 70 of her class build for the U.S. Navy. As the fleet tug USS Zuni, she saw action in World War II, including in the Marianas, Philippines, and Iwo Jima operations. After the war, she was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1946.

U.S. Coast Guard operational history [edit ]

The bulk of Tamaroa ′s U.S. Coast Guard career was spent patrol, working in drug interdict, and fisheries protection. She was the foremost Coast Guard tender to arrive at the sinking ocean liner Andrea Doria in 1956. Tamaroa was involved in the landmark 1969 tort case, Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Inc. v. United States, 398 F.2d 167 ( 2d Cir. 1968 ), which held the United States vicariously liable for the wrong caused by Tamaroa to a dry dock after an intoxicate U.S. Coast Guard seaman returning to his bunk bed aboard Tamaroa on 14 March 1963 opened dry dock water valves, flooding and sinking the dry dock and causing Tamaroa to list and slide off her blocks. In its predominate, the court found that an employer ( in this case, the United States Government ) will be held liable under respondeat superior if the actions of the employee ( in this, a U.S. Coast Guard mariner ) arise out of the path of his or her employment ( in this casing, as a U.S. Coast Guard seaman returning to his ship after leave ) and induce price ( in this shell, to Bushey & Sons′ dry-dock ). The court held that “ the transport is apt for anything ship-connected persons cause it to do. ” [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Tamaroa is possibly most celebrated for a rescue described in the 1997 book The Perfect Storm ( by Sebastian Junger ) and depicted in the 2000 movie The Perfect Storm ; on October 31, 1991, Tamaroa had been attempting to rescue the crew of the sailing vessel Satori the previous day when the cutter was diverted to assist the Air National Guard aircrew, she rescued four out of the five crewmen of a polish New York Air National Guard helicopter. The fifth aircrewman was never found and presumed drowned. [ 3 ]

Decommissioning and disposal [edit ]

After the Coast Guard decommissioned her in 1994, Tamaroa was donated to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City. She was noticed tied up following to the museum ship Intrepid in 1994 by a erstwhile crewman who began a campaign to restore her. After several abortive attempts, the Zuni Maritime Foundation, a non-profit organization in Richmond, Virginia, formed. The foundation garment attempted to preserve the ship in an operational condition, and use her to educate the public. This ultimately prove unsuccessful. prior to scuttling, parts of the Tamaroa were removed by the Black Dog Salvage company for two episodes of the television receiver picture “ Salvage Dawgs ”. Her main mast was repurposed as a flagpole for the Ballast Point microbrewery in Roanoke, VA. Having been tied up in Norfolk, Virginia, and environmentally cleaned, she was selected in 2016 for use as an artificial witwatersrand. Her slump, originally scheduled for 30 October 2016, was delayed by harsh seas and related issues. She last was scuttled at 13:00 on 10 May 2017 in the Atlantic Ocean about 33 nautical miles ( 61 kilometer ) from Cape May, New Jersey, at a astuteness of 120 feet, forming an artificial witwatersrand. Her wreck is now a amateur dive site, part of the Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Reef. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

Awards [edit ]

[ 7 ]

References [edit ]

Media related to USCGC Tamaroa ( WMEC-166 ) at Wikimedia Commons