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Other Self-Propelled District Craft to 1922: Photo Gallery

Many of the photos here were selected from the comprehensive NavSource Photo Archive and are acknowledged with thanks.

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Freight Lighters (YF)

Freight Lighter No. 49 (later YF-49) off the Portsmouth, N.H. Navy Yard on 14 March 1916 upon completion. (Photo: RG-19-E)

Freight Lighter No. 49 off the Portsmouth, N.H. Navy Yard on 14 March 1916 upon completion.
(Photo: RG-19-E)

YF-56 at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 2 March 1931 with the newly modernized USS Arizona (BB-39) in the background. She was built in 1916 as Ash Lighter No. 43 and converted. (Photo: NARA RG-19-LC-19-B-3, detail)

Ferry Boats and Ferry Launches (YFB)

Ferry Launch Dart (later YFB-308). She was built at Mare Island in 1900.
(Photo: NH 54643)

Ferry Launch Navy Yard (later YFB-8) at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 10 November 1914 with her name painted on the bow. She was built in 1901.
(Photo: NavSource 1435000803 cropped from NARA RG-181, Local ID 181-V-1014)

Launch No. 132 (YFB-132) departing the ferry landing at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, on 22 September 1926. She is headed across the Piscataqua River to the ferry landing at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was built in 1902.
(Photo: NH 41608)

Ferry Launch Castro (later YFB-621). She was built at Mare Island in 1904.
(Photo: NavSource 1435062102)

Magdalena (YFB-687), ex Working Launch No. 687. She was built at Cavite in 1908 and in 1914 was listed as a tug with the other five Cavite working launches.
(Photo: NH 46921)

Spray (Launch No. 1059, later YFB-1059) on 9 June 1914 as the New York Navy Yard Commandant's barge with the Williamsburg bridge in the background. She was built at the New York Navy Yard in 1911.
(Photo: Navy Bureau of Yards & Docks photo, NARA RG-181, NAID 6038094)

Ferry Boat Inca (later YFB-280). Built by Herreshoff in 1911 for Naval Training Station Newport. Shown there in a panoramic view circa 1915.
(Photo: NH 116964, detail)

Admiral Glass (later YFB-2), ferry steamer for Yerba Buena Training Station, at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 21 August 1916.
(Photo: NARA RG-19-E)

Ambulance Boats (YH)

Ambulance Boat No. 1 (later YH-1) just before her launching at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 24 July 1919 with the daughter of Commander John L. Neilson, USN (Medical Corps) preparing to christen the vessel. (Photo: NH 41799)

Ambulance Boat No. 1, launching at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 24 July 1919. She was converted during construction from Motor Tug No. 97 and was classified YH-1 in July 1920.
(Photo: NH 41602)

Ambulance Boat No. 1 off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, probably soon after she entered service on 18 August 1919.
(Photo: NH 41600)

Ambulance Boat No. 1 lowering a stretcher containing a patient through the starboard side of the booby hatch aft of the pilot house at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 31 October 1919. (Photo: NH 41601)

Fuel-Oil Barges (YO)

YO-2 alongside an unidentified ship while pumping oil, probably at Guantanamo, circa mid-1920s.
(Photo: NavSource 141200201, from 1928 Lucky Bag USNA yearbook)

YO-2 inboard of YW-22 at Guantanamo Bay circa late 1920s - early 1930s. She was built by Maryland Steel Co., Baltimore, in 1912.
(Photo: NavSource 141200202)

YO-5 alongside USS Shawmut (CM-4) in the Hudson River, New York, on 2 May 1927. She was built at Newport News in 1913.(Photo: NavSource 141200501, cropped from NH 43613)

Oil Barge No. 8 (later YO-8) ready for launching from one side of Dry Dock #1 at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 11 March 1915. (Photo: RG-19-E)

Oil Barge No. 9 (later YO-9) being launched from the other side of Dry Dock #1 at Mare Island on 13 March 1915.
(Photo: NavSource 141200905)

Oil Barge No. 8 underway on 1 April 1915. Note the open tank covers.
(Photo: RG-19-E)

Oil Barges Nos. 8 and 9 at Mare Island on 1 April 1915. No. 8 is having her oil tanks calibrated. Active (Harbor Tug No. 14) is moored outboard of the two oil barges.
(Photo: NavSource 141200809)

Oil Barge No. 31 (YO-31) underway in the Norfolk area, 1931. She was built in 1918 by the Tank Shipbuilding Co. of Newburgh, N.Y., who built YO 20-24 and 30-32.
(Photo: NH 59965)

Seaplane Wrecking Derricks (YSD)

Aeroplane Wrecking Derrick. Seaplane Wrecking Derrick #1, designated YSD-1 in 1920, was based on this design.
(Photo: www.shipscribe.com/styles)

YSD-1 probably at the U.S. Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida, date unknown. She was converted in 1916 from Floating Derrick No. 26 by the Charleston S.C. Navy Yard. (Photo: NavSource 14580103)

YSD-2 getting into position to salvage a downed aircraft near NAS Pensacola in 1924. She was built at the New Orleans Navy Yard in 1920 and had twin screws.
(Photo: NH 72944)

YSD-2 in the NAS Pensacola Wet Basin in August 1940. The deckhouse has been modified with a tug-boat style wheelhouse.
(Photo: NavSource 14580204, TimeLife_image 115657253, for personal non-commercial use only)

YSD-4 and USS Undaunted (AT-58) moored at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 5 July 1922. Note the stern paddle wheel on YSD-4, also a feature of YSD-5. (Photo: NavSource 14580401)

Water Barges (YW)

Note: Water Barge No. 14, built in 1905 by the Pusey & Jones Co. at Wilmington, Del., was a novel craft designed to carry both coal and fresh water to vessels in the harbor and to take from them ashes for dumping outside navigable waters. The single boom helped handle the coal, two four-inch plugs in the deck admitted water to and discharged it from the fresh water tanks, valves below the waterline admitted salt water to the ballast tank, and eight steel doors in the bottom of the coal bunker, when raised and released, dropped the ashes overboard. The 130-ton displacement rectangular barge measured 80 feet by 30 feet (length of hopper 35 feet) and had two 50-hp engines, one on each side, that produced a speed of 6.7 knots. After trials she was sent to the Guantanamo Bay coaling station.

Water Barge No. 14 (later YW-14), deck plan and inboard profile.
(Source: Marine Engineering, April 1906, page 143)

Water Barge No. 14 as completed in 1905.
(Photo: NavSource 141701401, from Pusey & Jones Corp. Collection, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del.)

Water Barge No. 14, pilot house as completed in 1905.
(Photo: NavSource 141701402, from Pusey & Jones Corp. Collection, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del.)

Water Barge No. 14 at Guantanamo Bay in January 1920.
(Photo: NH 43500)

Water Barge No. 17 at the New York Navy Yard on 3 November 1913. This 154-foot self-propelled craft was built at the Portsmouth, N.H., Navy Yard in 1908. Note the open tank hatch covers. Assigned to Guantanamo in 1914, she foundered under tow off Cuba on 17 February 1920. (Photo: NARA, Philadelphia, RG-181, NAID 6038443)

Water Barge No. 20 at Guantanamo in January 1920 with USS Delaware (BB-28) in the background. This was one of three 92-foot self-propelled barges, Nos. 18-20, built in different navy yards in 1907. She bears some resemblance to YW-14 but with a pointed bow. (Photo: NH 89742)

Water Barge No. 18 or 20 at Guantanamo Bay in January 1920.
(Photo: NH 43699)

Water Barge No. 25, a 120-foot self-propelled water barge ready for launching on 13 September 1915 at Mare Island.
(Photo: NARA RG-19-E)