Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 633:  USS Challenge off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, 14 February 1921

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Challenge (SP-1015, later AT-59, YT-126 & YTM-126), 1918-1946.
Briefly named Defiance in 1918.
Previously the civilian tug Defiance (1889).

USS Challenge, a 346-ton tug, was built in 1889 by John H. Dialogue and Sons at Camden, New Jersey, as the civilian tug Defiance. In June 1918, when she was owned by the Shipowners & Merchants Tugboat Company of San Francisco, California, she was taken over by the Navy. Placed in commission as USS Defiance (SP-1015) in late July, her name was changed to Challenge in mid-August 1918. Following nearly two years' service along the coasts of California and Mexico, at the end of May 1920 she began more than two and a half decades of employment at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, and in July was redesignated AT-59. Challenge was decommissioned in May 1922 but resumed active service at Bremerton in February 1925. She was formally reclassified as a harbor tug at the end of January 1936, receiving the hull number YT-126. This was changed to YTM-126 in April 1944. In October 1946, the now very elderly Challenge was turned over the the Maritime Commission for disposal.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Challenge (SP-1015, later AT-59, YT-126 & YTM-126), which was previously the civilian tug Defiance and, briefly in 1918, USS Defiance (SP-1015)


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 99965

Defiance
(American Tug, 1889)

In port, prior to entering Navy service.
Built at Camden, New Jersey, in 1889, this tug was taken over by the Navy on 13 June 1918 from the Shipowners & Merchants Tugboat Company of San Francisco, California, and placed in commission on 29 July as USS Defiance (SP-1015). She was renamed Challenge on 19 August 1918. She later received the hull number AT-59, which was changed to YT-126 in 1936 and YTM-126 in 1944.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 50KB; 435 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 633

USS Challenge
(AT-59)

Off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, 14 February 1921.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 530 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 31 January 2005