USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275)

Bouker No. 2 in civilian use prior to her U.S. Navy service.
History
United States
Name:	USS Bouker No. 2
Namesake:	Previous name retained
Builder:	A. C. Brown and Sons, Tottenville, Staten Island, New York
Completed:	1904
Acquired:	14 December 1917
Reclassified:	YT-30, 17 July 1920
Struck:	25 July 1922
Fate:	Transferred to City of Norfolk, Virginia, August 1921 Returned to U.S. Navy 15 June 1922 Sold 25 July 1922
Notes:	Served as commercial tug SS Robert Rogers and SS Bouker No. 2 1904-1917 Served as Norfolk, Virginia, city fireboat 1921-1922 In commercial service from 1922
General characteristics
Type:	Tug
Length:	95 ft 4 in (29.06 m) between perpendiculars
Beam:	25 ft 8 in (7.82 m)
Draft:	12 ft (3.7 m) aft
Propulsion:	Steam engine
Speed:	10 knots
Complement:	14

USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275), later YT-30, was a tug that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1921.

Bouker No. 2 was built as the commercial tug SS Robert Rogers in 1904 at Tottenville, Staten Island, New York, by A. C. Brown and Sons. She was owned by the Bouker Towing Company and had been renamed SS Bouker No. 2 by the time the 3rd Naval District inspected her for possible World War I service as a minesweeper. The U.S. Navy acquired her on 14 December 1917 and commissioned her as USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275).

Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Bouker No. 2 operated as a district craft, towing in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area until the spring of 1921. When the U.S. Navy instituted an alphanumeric hull number classification system for its ships in mid-1920, she received the hull number YT-30 on 17 July 1920.

Bouker No. 2 was ordered inspected for sale on 23 April 1921, but was withdrawn from the sale list in July 1921. Instead, she was transferred to the City of Norfolk, Virginia, in August 1921 for use as a fireboat.

Less than a year later, the Norfolk city government decided that it could not use Bouker No. 2 "for fire purposes"^[1] and returned her to the Navy at the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 June 1922.

The Navy sold Bouker No. 2 to the New York Marine Company of New York City on 25 July 1922. Her name was struck from the Navy List simultaneously.

Notes

1. This quote, at the ship's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/b8/bouker%20no%202.htm, is unatrributed.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center: Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Bouker No. 2 (American Tug, 1904). Originally named Robert Rogers. Served as USS Bouker No. 2 (ID # 1275, later YT-30) in 1917-1922
• NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive: YT-30 ex-Bouker No. 2 (SP 1275)