Wreck of USS ATR-98

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, tugboat, United States Navy

USS ATR-98 was a ATR-1 Class Rescue Tug laid down in late 1943 and commissioned into US Navy service in early 1944. Assigned to the US Atlantic Fleet the ATR-98 steamed in convoy to the Azores, where she joined the Auxiliary force providing assistance to merchant and warships operating in the area.

Responding to a distress call for a disabled merchant ship North of the Azores, the ATR-98 and her crew fought through heavy seas to reach the stricken vessel, and then placed her under tow. The 165ft ATR-98 labored to maintain headway in the swell while towing the large merchantman and was soon ordered to pass the tow to the larger Fleet Ocean Tug USS Abnaki (ATF-96) which arrived onscene on the morning of April 12th.

As the two tugs drew close to pass the towing bridle between the ships, an effort made difficult by the high sea state, both came into contact with each other with the ATR-98 coming across the bow of the Abnaki. The wooden hull of the ATR-98 received fatal damage in the collision from the Abnaki's reinforced steel prow and after the ships separated the ATR-98 began quickly settling by the Stern and listing to Port. With the heavy seas threatening to roll the ship at any moment, the order was passed to abandon the ATR-98 shortly before noon and within 20 minutes all crew had taken to life rafts.

After the last crewman of the ATR-98 was accounted for, the swamping tug was taken under fire by the Abnaki as a hazard to navigation and sunk at this location on April 12th, 1944.

www.navsource.org/archives/09/38/38171.htm