SAGAMORE ATO 20

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Bagaduce Class Fleet Tug
Keel Laid 24 May 1917 as COMMANCHE (SP-3296)
Renamed SAGAMORE 30 October 1917 - Launched November 1917
Transferred to the US Navy 5 December 1917


1. USS SAGAMORE Fleet Tug No. 20
   Commissioned 8 June 1918
   
   
2. USS SAGAMORE AT-20
   Designated Fleet Tug (AT) 17 July 1920
   
   
3. USS SAGAMORE ATO-20
   Reclassified Fleet Tug Old (ATO) 14 May 1944
   Decommissioned 31 August 1946
   
   Struck from Naval Register 28 January 1947
   Transferred to Maritime Commission for disposal
   Sold 24 December 1947 to Hughes Bros., New York City for $11,327
   Acquired 1948 by McAllister Brothers Towing, renamed "John E. McAllister"
   Scrapped 1953 at Baltimore, MD.

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USS SAGAMORE Fleet Tug No. 20 Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)
2. USS SAGAMORE AT-20 Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)
3. USS SAGAMORE ATO-20 Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

---

Post Office Established 24 January 1919 - Post Office Disestablished 25 February 1920

 

Locy Type 9

1927-04-18

"Postmark used after POD, as late as 1930" - USCS Postmark Catalog, 5th Edition 1997. Courtesy of the Jim Myerson collection.

---

John Gill created postmark used in 1935

 

Locy Type F "NAVY YARD / NEW YORK" USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. CD-2

1935-08-15

Postmark used after POD

---

Post Office Reestablished 1 January 1942 - Post Office Disestablished 1 September 1946

 

Locy Type FDPS 3 (A-BBT)

1942-01-01

First Day of Postal Service, cachet by Walter Czubay

 

Locy Type 3 (A-BBT)

1946-07-26

From the Bob Govern collection.

 

Other Information

USS SAGAMORE earned the World War I Victory Medal, the American Defense Service Medal (w/ Fleet clasp), the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - An Algonquian term for chief.

Three ships of the US Navy have borne the name SAGAMORE - USS Sagamore (Gunboat 1861), USS Sagamore ATO-20 and USS Sagamore ATA-208

 

---

 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

---

Copyright 2026 Naval Cover Museum