USCGC Tamaroa (WAT/WMEC-166), originally the United States Navy Cherokee-class fleet tug , was a United States Coast Guard cutter. Following the U.S. Coast Guard custom of naming cutters in this class of ship after Native American tribes, she was named after the Tamaroa tribe of the Illiniwek tribal group. Construction and U.S. Navy operational history The ship was one of 70 of her class built for the U.S. Navy. As the fleet tug USS Zuni, she saw action in World War II, including in the Marianas, Philippines, and Iwo Jima operations. After the war, she was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1946. U.S. Coast Guard operational history The bulk of Tamaroa′s U.S. Coast Guard career was spent patrolling, working in drug interdiction, and fisheries protection. She was the first Coast Guard cutter to arrive at the sinking ocean liner Andrea Doria in 1956. Tamaroa was involved in the landmark 1969 tort case, Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Inc. v. United States, 398 F.2d 167 (2d Cir. 1968), which held the United States vicariously liable for the damage caused by Tamaroa to a drydock after an intoxicated U.S. Coast Guard seaman returning to his bunk aboard Tamaroa on 14 March 1963 opened drydock water valves, flooding and sinking the drydock and causing Tamaroa to list and slide off her blocks. In its ruling, the court found that an employer (in this case, the United States Government) will be held liable under respondeat superior if the actions of the employee (in this, a U.S. Coast Guard seaman) arise out of the course of his or her employment (in this case, as a U.S. Coast Guard seaman returning to his ship after leave) and cause damage (in this case, to Bushey & Sons′ drydock). The court held that "the ship is liable for anything ship-connected persons cause it to do." Tamaroa is perhaps most famous for a rescue described in the 1997 book The Perfect Storm (by Sebastian Junger) and depicted in the 2000 movie The Perfect Storm; on October 31, 1991, Tamaroa had been attempting to rescue the crew of the sailing vessel Satori the previous day when the cutter was diverted to assist the Air National Guard aircrew, she rescued four out of the five crewmen of a downed New York Air National Guard helicopter. The fifth aircrewman was never found and presumed drowned. Decommissioning and disposal After the