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

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

USS Wandank (Fleet Tug # 26, later AT-26 & ATO-26)

USS Wandank, a 795-ton Algorma class fleet tug, was built at the Buffalo, New York. She was commissioned in March 1920 and soon received the hull number AT-26. Over the next two decades, she operated in the U.S. east coast area, generally near her base at Norfolk, Virginia. In 1939, she assisted with rescue and salvage efforts on the submarine USS Squalus (SS-192), which had accidently sunk off Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Wandank changed her base to Boston, Massachusetts, in October 1940, and worked from there during the World War II years. Her designation was changed to ATO-26 in May 1944. The tug was decommissioned in September 1946. In July 1947, Wandank was sold to a commerical owner, who operated her under the name W.A. Bisso until 1971.

This page features all our views of USS Wandank.

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 43681

USS Wandank (AT-26)


Photographed circa the later 1920s or early 1930s.
USS Constitution is on the opposite side of the pier.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 83839

USS Wandank (AT-26)


Photographed circa the 1920s or 1930s.

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1975.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 475 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 57508

USS Squalus (SS-192) Rescue Operations, May 1939


USS Wandank (AT-26), at left, and USS Falcon (ASR-2) moored over the sunken Squalus, during rescue operations, circa 24 May 1939.
The McCann Rescue Chamber, which brought 33 of the submarine's crewmen to safety, is visible on Falcon's after deck.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 565 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 57509

USS Squalus (SS-192) Salvage Operations, 1939


View taken from USS Falcon (ASR-2) on 12 August 1939, after Squalus had been lifted off the sea bottom and was being towed to shallower water, supported by salvage pontoons. USS Wandank (AT-26) and a smaller tug (probably USS Penacook, YT-6) are towing, while Falcon acted as restraining ship. There are groups of three pontoons each visible on the surface at the submerged submarine's bow and stern. One more pontoon was underwater at the bow and three more at the stern.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 450 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1149021

Salvage of USS Squalus (SS-192), 1939


Men from the submarine rescue ship Falcon (ASR-2) working on salvage pontoons, during the effort to raise Squalus from the sea bottom off the New Hampshire coast in the Summer of 1939. The larger of the two tugs at right is USS Wandank (AT-26).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1149021.

 


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


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30 June 2000