USS Constant, (AM-427/MSO-427) was an Agile class minesweeper vessel 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 ...

. ''Constant'' was laid down on 16 August 1951 at

Fulton Shipyard Fulton Shipyard was a shipbuilding company in Antioch, California. The shipyard was founded in 1924 by Frank Fulton and Angeline Fulton Fredericks. To support the World War II demand for ships, Fulton Shipyard built minesweepers, tugboats, a ...

Antioch, California Antioch is the third-largest city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area along the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The city's population was 115,291 at the 2020 cen ...

and launched on 14 February 1953. She was commissioned as ''Constant'', AM-427) on 8 September 1954 and later reclassified as an Ocean

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 ...

MSO-427 on 7 February 1955.

Pacific Ocean operations

''Constant'' operated on the west coast until she cleared

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, 4 January 1956 for

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

and

Yokosuka, Japan is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

, arriving 4 February. She joined in amphibious exercises at Iwo Jima, made repairs to cables and conducted

minesweeping Minesweeping is the practice of the removal of explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that ...

and local operations from her base at

Sasebo is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...

until 28 March. Between 2 April and 19 May, she sailed in training exercises with naval forces of the Republic of China based on Kaohsiung,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. She returned to

20 April to resume operations in Japanese waters until 19 May, when she cleared

, for

, arriving 15 June.

Stateside Overhaul

After overhaul and west coast operations, ''Constant'' sailed from

, 2 June 1958, for

and duty in

off

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, as well as other local operations from 3 July to 30 August. She stood by at

from 2 September until 27 October during the

Quemoy Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separate ...

Crisis, then called at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, before returning to Japan. She cleared

, 12 December for

, arriving 6 January 1959. Through the remainder of 1959, and the first half of 1960, she operated locally from Long Beach. On 31 August ''Constant'' sailed for duty in the Far East, where she remained into 1961. In the mid-1980s, she participated in one or more extended endurance Naval Reserve summer training cruises (with reservists embarked) from her homeport in San Diego to as far away as the Naval Air Station in Adak, AK. In June, 1985, USS Constant called at the following ports: U.S. Coast Guard Station Juneau, AK, and at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak Island, AK.

Decommissioning

''Constant'' was decommissioned, 30 September 1992; struck from the

Naval Register 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 ...

, 9 March 1994; sold for scrapping to Crowley Marine, removal date 29 September 1999; scrapped, 1 April 2001.

References

External links

NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive - AM / MSO-427 Constant
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Constant Agile-class minesweepers 1953 ships Ships built in Antioch, California