USS ATA-216

History
United States
Name	USS Allthorn
Namesake	Allthorn
Builder	Canulette Shipbuilding Co., Slidell, Louisiana
Laid down	31 October 1943 as Allthorn (YN-94)
Launched	25 May 1944
Commissioned	date unknown, as USS ATA-216
Decommissioned	date unknown
Reclassified	AN-70, 20 January 1944; ATA-216, 15 May 1944
Stricken	date unknown
Fate	Scrapped 1968
General characteristics
Type	ATA-214-class auxiliary fleet tug
Displacement	1,275 tons
Length	194 ft 6 in (59.28 m)
Beam	34 ft 7 in (10.54 m)
Draft	14 ft 1 in (4.29 m) (full load)
Propulsion	diesel-electric engines, single screw
Speed	12.1 knots
Complement	57 officers and enlisted
Armament	two 40 mm gun mounts

USS ATA-216 was an ATA-214-class tug of the United States Navy built in 1944. Originally laid down as the net tender Allthorn of the Ailanthus class, she was redesignated before being launched. The ship was commissioned on 30 October 1944. ATA-216 had a brief naval career, and was decommissioned on 26 March 1946.

Construction

Originally planned as the Ailanthus-class net laying ship Allthorn (YN-94), she was laid down on 31 October 1943 at Slidell, Louisiana by the Canulette Shipbuilding Company. On 20 January 1944 she was redesignated as an auxiliary net laying ship, Allthorn (AN-70), and launched on 27 May. On 12 August her name was cancelled, she was again repurposed, to the ATA-214-class auxiliary ocean tug ATA-216, and commissioned as such on 30 October 1944.^[1][2]

Naval service

ATA-216 served in the Pacific Theater and, after the surrender of Japan, briefly in the Occupation Service in the Far East, until 20 October 1945. The tug was decommissioned on 26 March 1946 and later struck from the Navy List.^[2][3]

Commercial service

In 1948 the tug was sold to unidentified American interests and renamed Kara Gay,^[2] and then registered in 1951 to Walter H Wilms & Company of Portland, Oregon, allocated Official Number 262382, and renamed El Sol.^[3] After three years she was bought by the Portland Tug & Barge Company, and then resold in 1956 to the New York City-based De Long Corporation, which registered her in Panama, still with the same name, El Sol.^[3]

References

1. "Allthorn". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History and Heritage Command. 16 June 2015. Archived from the original on 17 March 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
2. "USS Yaupon (ATA-218)". NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive. Navsource Naval History. 23 September 2016. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
3. Williams, Greg H (2013). World War II U.S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-7864-6645-0.