Bouker No. 2, originally Robert Rogers, was a tugboat built in 1904 for merchant service in and around the waters of New York City. During World War I, the tug was commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275), and continued in naval service (later with the designation YT-30) until 1921. Briefly considered for service as a fireboat in Norfolk, Virginia, she was instead returned to merchant service in 1922 as a tugboat, under the name New York Marine Co. No. 6. She was sunk in collision with a passenger steamer in 1926.
Construction and design
Robert Rogers, a wooden-hulled screw tugboat, was built in 1904 by A. C. Brown & Sons of Tottenville, Staten Island, for the Rogers Towing Company of New York City. She was slated for launch on Saturday 26 March 1904 at 3 pm, but became stuck on the ways halfway down and had to be towed into the water "with some little trouble" by tugboats. The vessel was completed on 23 June.
Described as a "large" tug, Robert Rogers had a length of , beam of , hold depth of and draft of aft. She was fitted with four watertight bulkheads. Her registered tonnages were 179 gross and 122 net. She had an electric plant, steam steering gear, and a towing machine and steam capstan aft. In merchant service she had a crew of nine; this was increased to 14 in later naval service.
Robert Rogers was fitted with a second-hand engine taken from another, smaller Rogers Company tugboat, Maria Hoffman, as this engine had proven "too powerful" for the latter vessel. Hoffmans engine was fitted to Robert Rogers by Schantz & Eckert of Perth Amboy, after which the same company installed a new engine in Maria Hoffman. Robert Rogers original service speed is not known, but in later naval service, the tug's speed was recorded as .
Service history
Pre-war merchant service, 1904–1917
After completion, Robert Rogers went to work with the Rogers Towing Company in and around the waters of New York. On 29 June 1906, the tug went to the assistance of a small sloop or catboat which had capsized in a squall between Sandy Hook and Swinburne Island in Lower New York Bay. One man, who had clung to the capsized vessel, was rescued, but his companions could not be found after a search and were presumed drowned. All three men had been members of the lifesaving corps.
By 1907, Robert Rogers had been acquired by the Bouker Towing Company and renamed Bouker No. 2, but remained homeported in New York City. The tug's principal occupation with the new company was the towing of scows to Lower New York Bay for waste dumping. The tug towed two scows at a time when engaged in this service, and was capable of completing two such voyages per day in good weather.
Incidents and accidents, 1907–1911
On the night of 11 October 1907, Bouker No. 2 was involved in an accident when the two mud scows she was towing in the Kill Van Kull collided with a group of 24 boats in tow of the tug Ashbourne, which was traveling in the opposite direction—sinking one of them, the scow Irene. The owners of both tugs blamed the other but the courts concluded that Bouker No. 2 was primarily at fault and awarded damages accordingly.
The most serious accident involving Bouker No. 2 occurred in the early morning hours of 13 October 1909. While pulling a scow out of its slip at South Street, Brooklyn, at about 3 am, the towing cable briefly caught on the scow before snapping back, striking a deckhand in the throat and killing him instantly.
In the early morning of 15 November 1909, a motor boat, Otto W., capsized near the West Bank Light after attempting to pass astern of Bouker No. 2 and striking the running between the tug and her tow. The launch's two occupants were thrown in the water, but quickly rescued and returned to shore by the tug. The owner of the launch was reported to the authorities for failing to have any lights.
A remarkable incident involving Bouker No. 2 occurred on 25 August 1911. After the tug had towed two scows out into the bay and they had been duly emptied, one of them was capsized by a large wave and its captain disappeared. After conducting a fruitless search for the missing seaman, he was presumed drowned by the crew of Bouker No. 2, and the tug headed back to port with the two scows still in tow, but the capsized vessel made progress very slow and the return voyage took seven hours or more.