PORT TOWNSEND — A retired Coast Guard tugboat that was involved in the final battles of World War II will be on display at the Northwest Maritime Center until Sunday.
The 143-foot-long Comanche dwarfs the dock where it is moored and is attracting attention from boaters and landlubbers alike.
On Thursday, a pleasure boater pulled up portside and shouted that he had served on the boat in 1976.
This was the same time period that Paul Hill, who is on board as a Coast Guard member, also served.
“I know that guy,” Hill said, adding, “This kind of thing happens all the time.”
The Comanche is a former Navy Sotoyomo-class auxiliary ocean tug whose wartime role was to tow disabled ships out of the battle area.
It may have seen action in 1945’s Battle of Okinawa.
It is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Saturday and will leave port Sunday.
A donation of $5 is requested of visitors who can take a self-guided tour through the ship.
The donations are being used for the boat’s renovation, now underway.
“The beauty of this is that people can explore this in progress,” said director of operations Joe Peterson, who served on the Comanche’s sister vessel, the Modoc, as a Russian translator during the height of the Cold War.
The Modoc has been renovated into a luxury yacht by entrepreneur Peter Bennison of Gig Harbor, who has transformed it into a posh floating home, according to Peterson.
The Comanche is going in another direction and maintaining its authenticity.
In fact, the renovated boat will not contain anything that was not onboard during its prime, aside from a television set and microwave oven for the crew.
There is also a GPS and an autopilot, which Peterson said are never used.
Peterson hopes to finish the basic renovation in about a year, although that depends on the availability of volunteer labor and funds.
The Comanche, which was commissioned in 1944, was decommissioned in 1980. It was idle for 10 years before being moved to Puget Sound, where it worked as a commercial tug.
In 2007, the Comanche 202 Foundation was granted exempt status by the IRS and acquired the vessel by donation with the purpose of restoring it through the work of volunteers, many of whom actively served on the boat in their younger days.
Peterson said about 100 people have come on board in Port Townsend to look around, though in some locations, he said, it has been as many as 100 people an hour.
So far, the ship has benefited from 35,000 hours of volunteer labor.
Much of it will be restored to how it looked when it was active, with the tiny staterooms cleaned up with new floors and period paneling.
Other areas will become small “static museums,” with publications and artifacts.
The boat needs some work but is safe, Peterson said.
“All the systems work great; the needed renovations are all cosmetic.”
Following the war, the Comanche patrolled both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, observing Russian fishing vessels that may have been spies and, as Peterson said, “picking up pirates in the Caribbean before Johnny Depp was born.”
There is a hollow area under the boat’s stern that was once used to house prisoners, and it is the one part of the boat that has yet to be explored, according to Peterson.
“We have no idea what is down there,” he said.
In addition to public tours, the Comanche will host a concert at noon on Saturday by a Tacoma ensemble known as the Geriatric Jazz Collective, who will perform on the rear deck.
The performance coincides with the Port Townsend Jazz Festival.
“One of the guys in the band used to perform with Miles Davis, although we aren’t sure he’ll be here,” Peterson said.
“He told me he’d show up if he couldn’t find a paid gig.”
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
