USS Avocet (AVP-4)
{{short description|Minesweeper of the United States Navy}}
{{other ships|USS Avocet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=H97396.jpg |Ship caption=USS Avocet in foreground during the Attack on Pearl Harbor. USS Nevada is in the background, with a large American flag on her stern. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1944}} |Ship name= |Ship namesake= |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Baltimore Drydock and Shipbuilding Co. |Ship original cost= $766,914 (hull and machinery){{cite journal |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mZEqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA762 |title= Table 21 – Ships on Navy List June 30, 1919 |journal= Congressional Serial Set |publisher= U.S. Government Printing Office |year= 1921 |page= 762 }} |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=13 September 1917 |Ship launched=9 March 1918 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=*17 September 1918
|Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=10 December 1945 |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified=AM-19 to AVP-4 8 September 1925 |Ship refit= |Ship struck=3 January 1946 |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours=Avocet (AVP-4) earned one World War II battle star for her participation in the defense of the fleet at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sold to the Construction and Power Machine Co., Brooklyn, N.Y., on 12 December 1946 for use as a hulk. |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type= |Ship tonnage= |Ship class= {{sclass|Lapwing|minesweeper}} |Ship displacement=840 tons (853 tonnes) as AVP-4 |Ship length={{convert|187|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|35|ft|5|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught={{convert|15|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=Triple Reciprocating engine |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed=14 kn |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement= 75 |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= 2 × 3"/50 caliber guns |Ship armor=None |Ship notes= }} |
USS Avocet (AM-19/AVP-4) was a Lapwing-class minesweeper initially acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.
Avocet was commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard, on 17 September 1918, as a minesweeper.{{cite DANFS |url= http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/avocet-i.html |title= Avocet I (Minesweeper No. 19)}} Recommissioned on 8 September 1925 as a small seaplane tender, USS Avocet (AVP-4) was present during the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941. The ship survived the war, and was sold as a hulk on 6 December 1946. In June, 1937 USS Avocet carried a science team to Canton Island (in the Phoenix Islands, midway between Hawaii and Fiji, at the time a British Protectorate) for the total solar eclipse. There, the Avocet and HMS Wellington, carrying a British science team, fired shots across each other's bows in a dispute over the choice anchorage of the island which the Americans, arriving first, had claimed. The dispute was quickly smoothed over at the highest levels in both governments.
''Avocet''{{'}}s role in the Attack on Pearl Harbor
At about 07:45 on Sunday, 7 December 1941, Avocet's security watch reported Japanese planes bombing the seaplane hangars at the south end of Ford Island and sounded general quarters. Her crew promptly brought up ammunition to her guns and the ship opened fire. The first shot from Avocet{{'}}s starboard 3 in (76.2 mm) gun scored a direct hit on a Nakajima B5N2 ("Kate") carrier attack plane that had just scored a torpedo hit on the battleship {{USS|California|BB-44|6}}, moored nearby. The "Kate", from the aircraft carrier {{Ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Kaga||2}}'s air group, caught fire, slanted down from the sky, and crashed on the grounds of the naval hospital, one of five such planes lost by Kaga that morning.
Initially firing at torpedo planes, Avocet{{'}}s gunners shifted their focus to dive bombers attacking ships in the drydock area at the beginning of the forenoon watch. Then, sighting high altitude bombers overhead, they shifted their fire again. Soon afterwards five bombs splashed in a nearby berth, but none exploded.
From her veritable ringside seat, Avocet then witnessed the sortie of the battleship {{USS|Nevada|BB-36|6}}, the only ship of her type to get underway during the attack. Seeing the dreadnought underway, after clearing her berth astern of the burning battleship {{USS|Arizona|BB-39|6}}, dive-bomber pilots from Kaga singled her out for destruction, 21 planes attacking her from all points of the compass. Avocet{{'}}s captain, Lieutenant William C. Jonson Jr., marveled at the Japanese precision, writing later that he had never seen "a more perfectly executed attack." Avocet{{'}}s gunners added to the barrage to cover the battleship's passage down the harbor.
Although the ship ceased fire at 10:00, much work remained in the wake of the devastating surprise attack. She had expended 144 rounds of 3 in (76.2 mm) and 1,750 of .30 in (7.62 mm) ammunition in the battle against the attacking planes, and had suffered only two casualties: a box of ammunition coming up from the magazines had fallen on the foot of one man, and a piece of flying shrapnel had wounded another. Also during the course of the action, a sailor from the small seaplane tender {{USS|Swan|AVP-7|6}}, unable to return to his own ship, had reported on board for duty, and was immediately assigned a station on a .30 in (7.62 mm) machine gun.
Oil from ruptured battleship fuel tanks had been set afire by fires on those ships, and the wind, from the northeast, was slowly pushing it toward Avocet's berth. Accordingly, the seaplane tender got underway at 10:45, and moored temporarily to the magazine island dock at 11:10, awaiting further orders which were not long in coming. At 11:15, she was ordered to help quell the fires still blazing on board California. She spent 20 minutes fighting fires on board the battleship with the submarine rescue ship {{USS|Widgeon|ASR-1|6}}, and was then directed to proceed elsewhere.
Leaving California at 12:15, she reached the side of Nevada 25 minutes later, ordered to assist in beaching the battleship and fighting her fires. Mooring to Nevada{{'}}s port bow at 12:40, Avocet went slowly ahead, pushing her aground at channel buoy no. 19, with fire hoses led out to her forward spaces and her signal bridge. For two hours, Avocet fought Nevada{{'}}s fires, and succeeded in putting them out.
References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
- {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/avocet-i.html}}
External links
- [http://www.navsource.org/archives/11/02019.htm NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive – Avocet (AVP 4) – ex-AM-19 – ex-Minesweeper No. 19]
{{Lapwing class minesweeper}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avocet, USS (AVP-4)}}
Category:World War II seaplane tenders of the United States
Category:Lapwing-class minesweepers
Category:Ships present during the attack on Pearl Harbor
Category:Lapwing-class minesweepers converted to seaplane tenders