Chilula was laid down 13 June 1944, at Charleston Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. in Charleston and launched on 1 December 1944. She was a Cherokee-class fleet ocean tug that was powered by four Allis Chalmers generators driven by four General Electric diesel engines. She had a single propeller.[1] [2]
Chilula was commissioned by the United States Navy on 5 April 1945 and left Norfolk, Virginia on 14 May bound for Algiers, Louisiana, arriving 19 May. She took section 58 of ABSD-7 in tow and sailed on 27 May to Cristobal, Panama. Between 7 June and 14 June she towed sections of ABSD through the Panama Canal. Leaving Balboa, Panama on 16 June she arrived at Eniwetok Atoll on 31 July for towing duty. On 8 September Chilula left for Tokyo Bay, Japan arriving there on 20 September and until 11 January 1946 operated out of Yokosuka, Japan. On 11 January she departed Yokosuka with YO-17 in tow with a destination of Tsingtao, China. On 3 April, Chilula sailed from Yokosuka for Orange, Texas and was placed out of commission in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet on 8 February 1947.[2]
She was transferred to the United States Coast Guard on 9 July 1956 as USCGC Chilula (WAT-153). Her hull number was subsequently changed to WATF-153 later in 1956 and then WMEC-153 in 1966. She was initially assigned to Morehead City, North Carolina and was used for law enforcement and search and rescue duties.[3] In October 1963, Chilula located and took under tow in sixty foot seas the mothballed destroyer escort USS Fogg during Hurricane Ginny and returned her to Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Coast Guard decommissioned her on 19 June 1991 and returned her to the U.S. Navy.