Tugboat Trabajador (1931)

Trabajador was a 111 foot tug launched in 1931 by Hong Kong & Whampoa Dock Co., Ltd. for Visayan Stevedore-Transportation Company and registered as a United States vessel in Iloio, Philippines.

Commercial service
In 1935 the tug stood by and took on some survivors of the British freighter MS Silverhazel (1927) that was wrecked in San Bernardino Strait with fifty-four aboard of which fifty were rescued.

United States Navy service
The tug was commandeered by United States Navy and assigned to the 16th Naval District on 13 December 1941 under command of Lt. (jg.) Trose E. Donaldson, USNR as the war came to the Philippines. The tug was not formally commissioned but served in Manila Bay with the Base Section of the Inshore Patrol.

Trabajador, assisted by the USS Finch (AM-9), dumped unused mines into Manila Bay as Corregidor came under air attack on 29 December 1941 and continued the operation through the next day. With the move of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three to Sisiman Bay on the Bataan Peninsula the tug became tender to the PT boat squadron. For a brief time the tug was the "luxury" vessel for the PTs with a real galley, wardroom and even a mess boy that baked pies. After the squadron had left with General MacArthur as a passenger thirty-two men were left behind including Lt. (jg.) Edward G. DeLong who assumed command of Trabajador on 25 February 1942. DeLong himself left Corregidor 2 May and made it to Mindanao where he was later captured and executed in prison camp.

Trabajador, likely to have been sunk by fire delivered by Japanese artillery near Corregidor, was awarded a battle star.

Postwar
The tug remained on the bottom of Manila Bay until after the war when the ship salvaged and renamed Resolute apparently continuing operating into the late 1970s.