USS Potomac (AT-50), a tug built in 1897 as Wilmot by the F. W. Wheeler Company, West Bay City, Michigan, was purchased by the United States Navy from the Ocean Towing and Wrecking Company on 14 April 1898 for service in the Spanish–American War, commanded by Lieutenant G. P. Blow.

From December 1905 to mid-1906, Potomac served as part of the squadron that towed the floating dry dock USS Dewey from Maryland to the Philippines.

Potomac was herself iced-in and abandoned on 14 February, but salvaged in the late spring, arriving New York Navy Yard on 9 June.

Late in 1916, she was transferred to the West Indies, and while based at Santo Domingo, served as a transport and tug.

Decommissioned on 26 June, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 July and sold to New Orleans & Bisso Towboat Company on 1 December for $40,000.