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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Avocet (AVP 4)



Call sign:
Nan - Able - Dog - Peter

ex-AM-19
ex-Minesweeper No. 19



Call sign (1919):
George - Tare - Rush - Pup
Lapwing Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 13 September1918 by Baltimore Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co., Baltimore, MD
  • Launched 9 March 1918
  • Commissioned USS Avocet, Minesweeper No.19, 17 September 1918
  • Designated AM-19, 17 February 1920
  • Decommissioned 3 April 1922 at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines
  • Recommissioned 8 September 1925 at Cavite
  • Reclassified as a Small Seaplane Tender, AVP-4, 22 January 1936
  • Decommissioned 10 December 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 3 January 1946
  • Sold for scrap 12 December 1946.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 950 t.
    1936 - 1,350 t.
  • Length 187' 10"
  • Beam 35' 6'
  • Draft 9' 10"
    1936 - 13' 1"
  • Speed 14 kts.
    1936 - 13.5 kts.
  • Complement 78
    1936 - 85
  • Armament: Two 3" gun mounts and machine guns
    1936 - Two 3"/50 dual purpose mounts
    1944 - One 3"/50 dual purpose mount and two 20mm mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, one shaft
    1936 - Two Babcock and Wilcox 200psi header boilers, one 1,400shp Baltimore Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. 200psi saturated steam vertical triple expansion reciprocating engine.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Avocet (Minesweeper No. 19)
    Avocet 19k Namesake: Avocet - A long-legged, web-footed shore bird possessing a slender, up-curved bill, found in western and southern states Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 29 February 2020
    Avocet 277k Photo from "Sweeping the North Sea Mine Barrage" by the U.S. Navy North Sea Minesweeping Detachment Joe Radigan
    Avocet 184k U.S. Navy photo Jim Kurrasch, Battleship Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
    USS Avocet (AM 19)
    Avocet 104k Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Avocet 94k c. July/August 1921
    USS California (BB 44) and Avocet in the Mare Island Channel    		 Darryl Baker
    Avocet 85k 10 August 1921
    Commissioning ceremony aboard USS California (BB 44) at Mare Island Navy Yard. Avocet is alongside the California's port side
    U.S. Navy photo 6627
    Avocet 106k Avocet after being blown onto a sand bar at Chefoo, China by a typhoon on 26 August 1928. She is carrying a Martin T3M-2 torpedo plane of Torpedo Squadron VT-5A. USS Jason (AC-12), also serving as an aircraft tender, is in the distance.
    U.S. Marine Corps Museum photo, Jack A. Wagner collection, from copy at the Naval History and Heritage Command    		 Robert Hurst
    Avocet 157k Avocet tending two T4M aircraft of VT-5 in Manila Bay circa early 1932. One aircraft is afloat under the ship's aircraft handling boom aft, while the other is on a wooden Navy open lighter, (YC-147), amidships. Men from the aircraft squadron also lived in the tents on the barge
    Photo from Shipscribe website    		 Mike Green
    USS Avocet (AVP 4)
    Avocet 260k Stamped on back of photo "Our Navy" U.S. Navy photo 1 Hanson Place Brooklyn 17 Navy York Tommy Trampp
    Avocet 510k Deck Logs for 6 December 1941 Eric Watson
    Avocet 335k 7 December 1941
    Position of Avocet and other ships at Pearl Harbor
    Map courtesy of National Geographic Book Division    		 Joe Radigan
    Avocet 665k Deck Logs for 7 December 1941 Eric Watson
    Avocet 262k
    Avocet 94k Avocet at Berth Fox-1A, at Ford Island, prior to 1045 hrs. on 7 December, when she moved to avoid oil fires drifting southward along the shore of Ford Island.
    U.S. Navy photo 80-G-32669    		 Naval Historical Center
    Avocet 102k Avocet in foreground with Nevada (BB-36) in background, headed down channel after being intensely attacked by Japanese dive bombers. Photographed from Ford Island
    U.S. Navy photo NH 97396
    Avocet 83k Gunners on board Avocet look for more Japanese planes, at about the time the air raid ended. Photographed from atop a building at Naval Air Station Ford Island, looking toward the Navy Yard. Nevada (BB-36) is at right, with her bow afire. Beyond her is the burning Shaw (DD-373). Smoke at left comes from the destroyers Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375), ablaze in Drydock Number One
    U.S. Navy photo 80-G-32445
    Avocet 143k 7 December 1941
    Unidentified ships are visible, as well as a B-17 flying over the mountains in the background
    U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Museum/Naval Aviation Museum, photo No. 1996.488.029.016    		 Mike Green
    Avocet 428k Deck Logs for 8 December 1941 Eric Watson
    Avocet 351k 4 July 1942
    Hunters Point, San Francisco, CA
    Left to right: Tom Williams, James K. Johnson, Lawrence Watson and Kid Wondroach    		 Robert Taylor
    Avocet 127k Avocet in Elliott Bay, Seattle, Washington, on 1 March 1944. Her single 3"/50 gun is mounted in the original large tub that previously held two of these weapons
    National Archives photo 19-N-63708    		 Mike Green
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Christian Crone, USN - Awarded the Navy Cross (1919)17 September 1918 - 5 September 1919
    02LT Colin Campbell, USN5 September 1919 - 23 April 1921
    03LTJG Forrest Alexis Rhodes, USN23 April 1921 - 3 April 1922
    04LCDR Grady Baskin Whitehead, USN8 September 1925 - 17 January 1926
    06LT Frederick Stacer Holmes, USN17 January 1926 - 31 August 1926
    05LT George Alfred Ott, USN31 August 1926 - 10 April 1927
    07LT Homer Franklin McGee, USN10 April 1927 - 25 April 1931
    08LT George Francis Mentz, USN - USNA Class of 1909
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		25 April 1931 - 20 June 1931
    09LCDR Frederick Sears Conner, USN20 June 1931 - 23 April 1935
    09LT Robert Edward Jasperson, USN23 April 1935 - 18 July 1936
    10LT Thomas Binney Williamson, USN - USNA Class of 1923
    Retired as Vice Admiral    		18 July 1936 - 6 July 1938
    11LCDR Joseph Malcolm Carson, USN - USNA Class of 1925
    Awarded the Navy Cross, Legion of Merit w/Combat V and Bronze Star w/Combat V - Retired as Rear Admiral    		6 July 1938 - 1 July 1940
    12LT Robert Ellington Dixon, USN - USNA Class of 1927
    Awarded two Navy Crosses ( both in 1942), three Legions of Merit (1942, 1953 with Combat V and 1959) - Retired as
    Rear Admiral    		1 July 1940 - 1 July 1941
    13LCDR William Crawford Jonson, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1932
    Awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" - Retired as Rear Admiral    		1 July 1941 - 19 August 1942
    14LT Gus Otis Davis, USN19 August 1942 - April 1943
    15LT George Foster Keene, USN7 April 1943 - 14 December 1943
    14LTJG Edward Joseph Terrill, USN14 December 1943 - 18 March 1945
    15LT Henry L. Oakes, Jr., USNR18 March 1945 - 10 December 1945
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Avocet (AM-19)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Minesweeper (AM) Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Ship Photo Index Back to the Small Seaplane Tender (AVP) Photo Index
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