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(dp 560: l.163' 2": b. 30' 6"; dr.11' 8": c. Aloe)

Sandalwood (YN27) was laid down on 18 October 1940 by the American Shipbuilding Co. Lorain, Ohio, launched on 6 March 1941; sponsored by Mrs. J. I. Wallace; delivered on 25 October 1941; and placed in service on 25 October 1941.

Following transit of the St. Lawrence Sandalwood proceeded down the east coast to Norfolk,where she remained,conducting net operations and performing occasional patrol or salvage duties into 1944. On October 1,1944, Sandalwood was detached from the 5th Naval District. Two weeks later in the Panama Canal Zone, she reported to COMCCPAC and continued on to California and Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor on November 25th.

She remained there in the Hawaiian area into 1945; and in February, got underway for the Marshall Islands. At Eniwetok, M.I. by mid-March she began conducting net operations which would not end until the end of WW11. Two days after the war ended, she was ordered to Wake Island,to serve papers, so the Japanese garrison on Wake Island could be released to an waiting hospital ship. Sandalwood, then proceeded to Eniwetok again, to dismantle nets. After a week, she returned back to Wake Island and the crew had some R and R, checking out caves,and bunkers,and other hiding places.

On 24 November, she steamed east, arriving at San Pedro Ca. in early January, 1946. After four months we got underway for Astoria Oregon. Then we sailed the Columbia River to Portland. Decommissioned on 13 August, Sandalwood was laid up with the Pacific reserve fleet, initially at Bremerton, Washington, and later at Stockholm.Wa. In 1962 she was transferred to the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay. Five years later she was sold to France. She was transferred to the government of France in September 1967, and served as the LUCIOLE, into 1974. She was scrapped by the French Navy in 1980.

Provided by Al Seguin DCC USN Ret

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