USS ''Bunting'' (AMc-7) was a coastal

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. She was named after the bunting, a seed-eating bird intermediate in size between

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus '' Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...

s and

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

es.

Acquisition and modification

SS ''Vagabond'', a wooden-hulled purse seiner built in 1935 at

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

, by the Martinac Shipbuilding Co., was acquired by the Navy from Marko Bokich, et al., on 22 October 1940. She was designated AMc-7 shortly thereafter; renamed USS ''Bunting'' on 6 November 1940; converted to a coastal minesweeper by the Campbell Machine Company at

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

, California. She was placed in service at the Destroyer Base, San Diego, on 6 June 1941.

Assigned to San Francisco Bay duties

Assigned to the 12th Naval District, ''Bunting'' reported to her assigned base at the Section Headquarters,

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, California, on 19 June and spent the remainder of the year 1941 and the first five months of 1942 engaged in training officers, minesweeping, patrolling San Francisco Bay, and participating in local Army and Navy exercises.

Collision and sinking

While patrolling from Line Mile Rock to Point Diablo, ''Bunting'' collided with the patrol craft on 3 June 1942 and sank. Her name was struck from the

Navy List A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...

on 24 June 1942.

References

External links

*
Casualties, Navy and Coast Guard Ships, WW II

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunting (AMc-7) Minesweepers of the United States Navy Ships built in Tacoma, Washington 1935 ships World War II minesweepers of the United States World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Shipwrecks of the California coast Ships sunk in collisions Maritime incidents in June 1942