Sea Transporter YF-879
- Type:
- artificial reef, trawler, USA
- Specs:
- ( 135 x 32 ft )
- Built:
- 1945, American Bridge, Ambridge PA, as YF-879
- Sponsor:
- Cape May County Party & Charter Boat Association, Atlantic Cape Fisheries, Artificial Reef Association
- Sunk:
- Friday August 21, 1992 - Cape May Artificial Reef
- GPS:
- 38°53.118' -74°40.190'
- Depth:
- 70 ft
Sea Transporter was used as a marine survey ship, home-ported at Port Arthur Texas. A government study in the Gulf of Mexico published in 1979 is the source of the picture above. The given dimensions are just slightly off from what the artificial reef program says. For the survey, the vessel was equipped with side-scan sonar and underwater video cameras.
The only other picture I ever had is this tiny thumbnail: (blown-up here)
I always thought Sea Transporter was a funny name for a fishing boat. But it's not such a funny name for a Navy freighter, which is what the Sea Transporter started as, a "YF" or yard freighter. It appears to be YF-879, history from navsource.org below:
The rest of this is wrong ... Under Construction
YF-519
YF-257 (class) Self-propelled Covered Lighter
- Built by Erie Concrete and Steel Co., Erie, PA
- Laid down, date unknown
- Launched, date unknown
- Delivered and placed in service at New York Navy Yard, 16 July 1943
- Assigned to Naval Torpedo Station, Newport RI as range tender entire careeer
- Reclassified Covered Lighter Range Tender YFRT-519, date unknown
- Placed out of service, date unknown
- Struck from the Naval Register, date unknown
- Sold in June 1976 to James P. Crawford of Palacios, TX, named Easy Rider (ON 574423) **
- Rebuilt as a fishing vessel in April 1977
- Rebuilt as a clam dredge, circa 1984
- Out of US documentation about 1994
- Final Disposition, fate unknown
Specifications
- Displacement 600 tons
- Length 132' 10"
- Beam 30'
- Draft 8'
- Speed 10 knots
- Armament none
- Complement 10
- Propulsion diesel, twin screws
and from the 1979 survey report:
- Owners: Sea Transporter Associates, Santa Barbara, California
- 2x 500 hp diesel engines gave a cruising speed of 10 knots
- accommodations for 16 crew & clients
https://www.navsource.org/archives/14/43519.htm
** The part about Easy Rider is wrong, and everything after that is highly suspect. There is a photo of Easy Rider and it is clearly a different vessel. It doesn't help that there are no other records of Easy Rider to disprove the story. Easy Rider and Sea Transporter are referred to as 'sisters', they probably had the same owner and became conflated, which is doubtless the source of the confusion.
Assuming YF-519 is correct, here are a couple more pictures from navsource:
Note that the single hawsepipe (for the anchor) is on the port side of the bow. Apparently some of this type were built "lefty" and some were built "righty"; most seem to be righties, maybe it depended on the yard. My guess is the image at the top of this page is negative-flipped, a common mistake in the days of film photography.
Clearly a "lefty".
As a range tender, YF-519 was probably responsible for retrieving test torpedoes, and acting as a training target for new submarines. The opening chapters of Run Silent Run Deep go into this in detail. These were numerous and very useful little ships, and most had long lives after their military service. The Coast Guard took eight for buoy tenders after the war - the "White" class. A few of these little freighters soldiered on into the 2000s overseas, some might still be working today.
I am not 100% certain of this identification, but it seems very likely.
568087
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