Nipmuc

    (ATF-157: dp. 1,330; l. 205-; b. 38-6-; dr. 16-9-; s. 16 k.; cpl. 85; a. 1 3-; cl. Abnaki)

    A southern New England Algonquian tribe.

    Nipmuc (ATF-157) was laid down at the Charleston Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Charleston, S.C., 2
    December 1944; sponsored by Mrs. James O. Freeman; and commissioned 8 July 1945, Lt. Robert G. Hoffman
    in command.

    Following shakedown, Nipmuc towed SS Jacona, a generator vessel from the East Coast to Pearl Harbor.
    Underway for return to the East Coast in November, she delivered ARD-5 at New London, 25 February 1946.
    From 1946 to 1967, Nipmuc, based first at Norfolk and then at Newport, operated primarily along the east coast
    and in the Caribbean. She has, however, also gone into Arctic waters, to improve facilities at Thule, and provided
    transatlantic towing services. Her towing assignments ranged in size from battleship Wisconsin to district craft
    and targets; and, in 1955, included towing ARD-16, carrying Constellation, from Boston to Baltimore. She also
    performed myriad recovery and salvage missions, which in 1965 and 1966 took her to Cape Kennedy, Fla., to
    participate in capsule recovery for Gemini GT-3 and Gemini II.

    On 7 September 1967, Nipmuc departed Newport for her first extended overseas deployment, joining the 6th
    Fleet on the 19th. In the Mediterranean for five months, her primary mission was towing targets. In September
    1968, she again crossed the Atlantic, this time to the United Kindgom, where, for a short time, she provided
    service for Atlantic Fleet units at the Firth of Clyde, Greenock, and Belfast.

    On her return to Newport, she underwent regular overhaul and then resumed her service to the fleet. Despite a
    lack of fanfare, Nipmuc's accomplishments as a unit of Service Force, Atlantic Fleet contribute significantly to the
    strength and preparedness of the Navy.

Below - Another ship named Nipmuc.

    In 1919, Hopedale won a contest for the highest per-capita purchase of Liberty Bonds in Massachusetts .
    during World War I. I presume that's not because a large number of people in town were pitching in, but
    because the Draper family was buying a lot of bonds..Consequently, they got to select a name for a recently
    completed ship, and Queena Draper was chosen to perform the christening.. About ten years earlier,
    Queena and her husband, Bristow, had been outcasts in the family. Here's the story about that.

    Why name the ship Nipmuc? My guess is that for a ship's name they wanted something involved with water,
    and Nipmuc sounded much better than the USS Hopedale Pond. Lake Nipmuc was a very popular spot with
    Hopedale people. Not only did many go there by car or trolley for day trips, but articles in the Milford Gazette
    during that period show that many Hopedale people had cottages there.

Milford Gazette, October 31, 1919

Hopedale                Mendon