Banaag was a composite huIl, copper sheathed tug built in 1910 in Hong Kong by the Whampoa Dock Co. It was delivered to the U.S. Navy on February 1st 1911. The Banaag was placed in service at the naval station at Olongapo, P.I., and served there for the next three decades. During this time she was classified as a district tug, YT 104, on 17 July 1920.
The Japanese onslaught against the Philippines in December 1941 found Banaag on duty at Olongapo; and, on 18 December, she was reported to be “tied up across the bay so that she will not be endangered if the station proper” should be bombed. By that point, her three pounder guns had been turned over to the 4th Marine Regiment, which had recently arrived from Shanghai, China, for use as artillery. Banaag may well have been destroyed while the Olongapo Naval Station was being demolished on Christmas Day 1941.
Her name was struck from the Navy list on 24 July 1942, and she was subsequently listed as “lost due to enemy occupation.”
- Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships