They are mentioned by Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, in 1699, as living on Pascagoula river, near the Gulf coast, and was associated with the Biloxi tribes.

During the Battle of Iwo Jima she served on a standby basis with the Support Force and at the conclusion of the campaign towed USS Marl (IX-160) from Saipan to Ulithi.

After training, she deployed to the Far East and by November 1951 had touched Midway, Eniwetok, Kwajalein, Guam, Subic Bay, Sasebo, Yokosuka, Inchon, Pusan, Okinawa, Taiwan, and Daecheongdo, Korea.

In September she conducted salvage operations on the frigate ROKS Apnok (62) off Abru Somu Island, North Korea, towing the damaged ship to Pusan thence to Yokosuka for repairs.

Thereafter, from her base at Pearl Harbor, Moctobi spent more than three decades constantly employed throughout the Pacific, including classified operations for the Atomic Energy Commission.

In November and December 1964, Moctobi participated in a chemical warfare experiment off Hawaii under Project SHAD code-named Flower Drum II, which dispersed VX nerve agent tagged with radioactive phosphorus-32 from a towed barge.

While a new pier was being built at the Naval Reserve Center in Everett, Moctobi docked at a quay wall adjacent to the now closed Scott Paper Mill facility.

[2] USS Moctobi was decommissioned on 30 September 1985 at Long Beach, California and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Bremerton, Washington.

[3] They were intended for a new trans-Lake Superior freight car barge service between Ontonagon and Thunder Bay, Ontario,[4] though it has been suggested that the company sought the tug's four General Motors engines (24 in all) to use in their locomotives.