Hoga (YT-146/YTB-146/YTM-146) is a United States Navy district harbor tug named after the Sioux Indian word for "fish." After World War II, the tug was known as Port of Oakland and then City of Oakland when she was a fireboat in Oakland, California.
Authorized on 18 June 1940, she was built by the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation in Morris Heights, New York. Her keel was laid on 25 July 1940. Launched on 31 December 1940, she was christened Hoga (YT-146). Placed in service on 22 May 1941 at Norfolk, Virginia, Hoga was assigned to the 14th Naval District at Pearl Harbor. She made the trip there by way of the Panama Canal, San Diego, and San Pedro.
At Pearl Harbor, Hoga was berthed at the Yard Craft Dock, and worked moving cargo lighters and assisting ships in and out of berths. Like other YTs, she carried firefighting equipment. Hoga was present during the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The last surviving vessels from the attack are museum ships, the US Coast Guard cutter WHEC-37 (formerly USCGC Taney) in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, and Hoga at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum.
At Pearl Harbor
Hoga was moored with other yard service craft near the drydocks at 1010 Dock when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese forces on the morning of 7 December 1941.
Hoga was underway within ten minutes of the first strike. Steaming out into the harbor, she picked up two men in the water, landed them on the deck, and proceeded to the burning ships along Battleship Row. At the end, lay the shattered hulk of . Moored to Arizona was the badly damaged repair ship . Throwing lines to the stricken repair ship, Hoga helped pull Vestal away from Arizona at 8:30. Pulling in the tow lines that had been chopped free by Vestals panicked crew, Hoga ran to the assistance of the minelayer , flagship of Rear Admiral William Rea Furlong, commanding Minecraft, Battle Force. As she reached Oglala at 8:50, Hoga was passed by the battleship , then making a run for the open sea.
As the first wave of planes struck at 7:50, Nevada, moored near Arizona, had partial steam up. At 8:03, the ship took a torpedo hit near frame 40 and began to list. Counterflooding kept Nevada from capsizing as her anti-aircraft batteries opened up on the attacking planes, shooting down the plane that had dropped the torpedo. The commanding officer, Captain F. W. Scanland, was not aboard; the senior officer was Lieutenant Commander J. F. Thomas, USNR. Thomas, aided by another junior officer, conned the ship away as burning oil from the destroyed Arizona began to threaten Nevada. Just as the second wave of planes struck, the damaged Nevada got underway at 8:45, her officers hoping to escape the trap and run for the open sea through the narrow harbor entrance. The Japanese "recognized a golden double opportunity to sink a battleship and at the same time bottle up Pearl Harbor." The planes concentrated their attack on Nevada, which continued running, bombs crashing around her and on her forward deck and superstructure. At 9:07, a second "hail of bombs" rained on the ship, one striking the forecastle. By 9:10, Nevada was sinking, and she was grounded on Hospital Point to avoid going down in the channel.
Meanwhile, Hoga, with another vessel, was assisting Oglala. Damaged by the detonation of a torpedo against the cruiser , moored next to Oglala, the listing minesweeper required towing to clear the field of fire for Helena. As the sinking Oglala was moved aft of Helena by Hoga, "Admiral Furlong saw the Nevada 'give quite a heave,' and reflected to himself 'Well...there she is in the channel and there is going to be trouble if that ship sinks in the channel.' So he sent the two tugs that had been assisting Oglala to help nose the Nevada over toward Hospital Point."
Hoga then worked with the other tug, YT-130, to pull the battleship free and move her to the western side of the harbor entrance, where by 10:45 she settled as Hoga poured water onto the burning deck and into the virtually destroyed forward section. Tied to the port bow, Hoga worked on a raging forecastle fire with the pilothouse monitor and four hose lines for over an hour before retiring.