USFS Osprey was an American steamer that served as a fishery patrol vessel in the waters of the Territory of Alaska. She was in commission in the United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) from 1913 to 1921, and was the first vessel the BOF ever operated on fishery patrols in Alaska. Before the BOF purchased her, she was the commercial cannery tender Wigwam from 1895 to 1912. After her BOF career ended, she operated as a commercial motor tug with the name Foss No. 19 from 1922 to 1965 and with the name Kiowa from 1965 until she sank in 1978.
Early history The vessel was constructed as the 72-foot (21.9 m) coal-burning commercial steamer Wigwam in San Francisco, California, in 1895. Under the ownership of the Alaska Packers Association, she became one of the first cannery tenders to operate in Alaska. At some point prior to her U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) service, the Alaska Packers Association rebuilt her to a high standard based on recommendations made by the Steamboat Inspection Service.
Bureau of Fisheries
Acquisition and characteristics After the United States purchased Russian America from the Russian Empire in 1867 and created the Department of Alaska, enforcement of whatever fishery regulations existed in Alaska fell to the revenue cutters of the United States Revenue-Marine, which in 1894 became the United States Revenue Cutter Service and was one of the ancestor organizations of the United States Coast Guard. On 14 June 1906, however, the United States Congress passed the Alien Fisheries Act to protect and regulate fisheries in what by then had become the District of Alaska by placing restrictions on the use of fishing tackle and on cannery operations in Alaska and authorizing the United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) to enforce the regulations. The BOF had no vessels suitable for fishery patrols in Alaska, and during the next few years relied on vessels borrowed from other United States Government agencies (such as the Revenue Cutter Service), on chartered vessels, and on transportation that canneries offered for free to BOF agents. This approach was not satisfactory for various reasons, such as the requirement for vessels of other government agencies to perform non-fishery-related functions, ethical concerns over accepting transportation from the canneries the BOF agents were supposed to regulate, and the difficulty of enforcing regulations when the local fishing and canning industry personnel warned one another of the approach of BOF agents who had accepted transportation on cannery vessels. Each year after the 1906 passage of the Alien Fisheries Act, the BOF requested more personnel and vessels with which to fulfill its regulatory and law enforcement responsibilities. By 1911, when the Alaska fishing industry reached an annual value of nearly US$17 million, it had become clear that the United States Government needed to make radical changes in how it enforced the provisions of the Alien Fisheries Act, including funding the acquisition of a fleet of dedicated fishery patrol vessels under the BOF. In the autumn of 1912, the BOF purchased Wigwam from the Alaska Packers Association for US$13,000 for use as the BOF's first fishery patrol vessel in what by then was the Territory of Alaska and renamed her USFS Osprey. Osprey had two masts, a steam winch on her forward main deck, a pilot house on her boat deck with quarters for three crew members, berths for six crew members in her forecastle, and accommodation for four crew members in her after cabin, which was finished in Spanish cedar and had folding berths. Her galley and dining room were on the forward main deck below the pilot house. She had a Scotch marine boiler and an 85-horsepower (63 kW) compound steam engine which gave her an average speed of 8 to 10 knots (15 to 19 km/h; 9.2 to 11.5 mph). Her dynamo was connected directly to a high-speed Corliss steam engine. For fuel, she could carry 7.5 tons of coal. Before placing Osprey in commission, the BOF had to await a Congressional appropriation to pay for a crew to man her, and meanwhile stored Osprey on the ways at Semiahmoo, Washington. The appropriation for a crew came into effect on 1 July 1913, and the BOF quickly relaunched Osprey at Semiahmoo, assigned a crew of six to her, commissioned her, and prepared her for her first voyage to Alaska as a BOF vessel.
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