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USS Conestoga AT-54

The USS Conestoga AT-54

*UPDATE* I added the barge she was towing to the workshop as a companion piece.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2795053217

This was an unsolved navy mystery that many puzzled over for almost 100 years. Little did anyone know that the ship hardly made it out of San Francisco bay. Likely caused by a leaky boat, bad seas and a problematic bilge pump the tug was forced to cut loose its tow and make for the closest island. It made it within 3 miles of land before the sea overcame the vessel. All hands were lost.

USS Conestoga (SP-1128/AT-54) was an ocean-going tug in the United States Navy. Commissioned in 1917, it disappeared in the Pacific Ocean in 1921.

Easy to start. start the boilers and head to the bride.

W/S will put you in forward and reverse (Go slow when transitioning or the engine might break.)

Use the Up arrow on the keyboard to engage the clutch.

Spaces include
Crew berthing forward and aft,
Boiler room
Engine Room
Forward Hold
Storage Room
Steam Windless Room
Locker Area
Ward Room (Officer Mess)
Galley
Radio Room (1 Kilowatt Kilbourne & Clark Quenched-Gap spark transmitter)
Bridge
Captains Quarters
Sickbay
Engine's Quarters
Chiefs Quarters
Officers Stateroom
2 Heads
Machine Shop
Tow Cable Machinery Room


The tug was built for the Philadelphia and Reading Railway as the Conestoga in 1904 by Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland.[2] She was purchased on 14 September 1917 for the World War I duty and designated SP-1128. She was commissioned on 10 November 1917.


Name USS Conestoga
Builder Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland, U.S.
Laid down 1904
Commissioned 10 November 1917
Reclassified AT-54, 17 July 1920

Fate Declared lost with all her crew, 30 June 1921 [wreck found 2016]

General characteristics

Type Ocean Going Tugboat
Displacement 420 long tons
Length 170 ft
Beam 29 ft

The Boat Features a Donkey Boiler. This is an In-Port Boiler that acts as a generator. It provides power for the ships systems. While it is not powerful enough to power the ship, it will keep everything else running. shut this off while running the main engines .


I tried to make this as close to scale as I could. Using drawings and photos and Its contemporary vessels as reference. I feel this is as close as I could do. Hours of research went into creating this ship. I have included 56 named beds for all of the crew and their Rate/Rank My hope is that these men are not forgotten by time and relevance. I have sailed on a 180 foot ship under the golden gate bridge myself. The area they were in was called the “Potato Patch” and was the roughest waters I have ever been in.



The Stormworks ship leaks water in windy conditions. The leak gets worse as the wind increases. In heavy gales (30+ Knots) will take on considerable water. If you manage to make it to the shallows (50 ft of water or less) the pumps will be able to keep up.
The power will cut off if the water reaches the power Distribution panel in the engine room. This will not effect things that are not powered by electricity in real life (Rope Davits, Steam powered equipment, ect. Even though those are electric in the game)

HISTORY
After Conestoga went missing, a report in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 13, 1921, suggested that a garbled radio transmission from the tug was received that stated it was “battling a storm and that the barge she was towing had been torn adrift by heavy seas” and that Conestoga was heading to port. The Chronicle suggested the message had come soon after the tug departed. Later accounts in the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Examiner stated, however, that the date of the transmission was said to be April 8, but it was suggested that the April 8 date was simply a report of a re-broadcast of the transmission from another ship that had picked up Conestoga’s.


The engine is triple expansion, with cylinders 18, 28, and 45 inches diameter by 30 inches stroke, to develop about 1,000 horse power. The full equipment of independent pumps for fire, feed, sanitary and wrecking purposes is installed, while the air, bilge, and feed pumps are direct connected to the main engine. Two large Scotch boilers furnish steam at 170 pounds pressure. Each is fitted with three Morison furnaces 35 inches diameter, entering into a common combustion chamber. The vessel is electric-lighted throughout by current from one 80-ampere and one 40- ampere machine (Marine Engineering 1904:367).



The loss of the tow most likely did not contribute to the loss of the tug. The forensic evidence shows the wire is secured on the winch, showing the crew professionally responded to the loss of the tow and rigged for a return to port as the radio message indicated. What caused the loss of Conestoga was the fact that in heavy seas, the tug, an older vessel that had previously been noted to not be a good sea-keeping vessel as a “wet boat,” was shipping water. This would have come from deck openings, it may have come from strained seams as the tug pounded in gale-whipped seas, and it may have come from the bilge pumps failing. In the list of requested repairs submitted to Mare Island for work prior to Conestoga’s departure was the need to “overhaul and renew parts where necessary direct connected bilge pumps. Reason: The bottom of both present pumps are deteriorated and metal eaten away where suction and discharge valve are in pumps causing constant trouble and cannot keep pumps working or water out of bilges” (Commanding Officer USS Conestoga 1921)


Credits
Wapama Triple Expansion Steam Engine Pack https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2681242294

Lifeboats
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2390726704