USS ''Constant'' (AM-86) was an of 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 ...

. Laid down on 21 February 1942 by the

Commercial Iron Works Commercial Iron Works was a manufacturing firm in Portland, Oregon, United States. Established in 1916, the company is best remembered today for its contribution to America's Emergency Shipbuilding Program during World War II. The company was fo ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, and launched on 9 May 1942, the ship was commissioned on 21 September 1942.

World War II Pacific Theatre operations

From 20 December 1942 to 4 March 1943 ''Constant'' escorted

convoys A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

between

San Francisco, California 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 ...

, and

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 ...

. She sailed from

8 March for

Espiritu Santo Espiritu Santo (, ; ) is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census. Geography The island belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region o ...

, arriving 25 March for local escort duty, operating from Espiritu Santo and Noumea in support of the Guadalcanal operation. On 3 September 1943 she arrived at

Tulagi Tulagi, less commonly known as Tulaghi, is a small island——in Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Ngella Sule. The town of the same name on the island (pop. 1,750) was the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1 ...

and remained in the Solomons on inter-island escort and

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 ...

duty with occasional

convoy A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

voyages to Nouméa and Espiritu Santo until 3 April 1944, when she steamed to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand, for a brief overhaul. She returned to Port Purvis on

Florida Island The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of Solomon Islands, a sovereign state (since 1978) in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The chain is composed of four larger islands and about ...

in the Solomons 13 May.

Reclassified as a submarine chaser

On 1 June 1944 her name was canceled and she was reclassified as a submarine chaser ''PC-1590''. She continued her service at Espiritu Santo, Nouméa,

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

and

Tongatapu Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, Nukualofa. It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with 74,611 residents (2016), 70.5% of the nation ...

until 6 May 1946.

Post-war activity

She then returned to

, where she was decommissioned 19 June 1946. Assigned to the 14th Naval District for Naval Reserve training 28 October 1946, ''PC-1590'' was placed in commission in reserve 5 May 1950, and in full commission from 20 March 1951 until decommissioned 22 October 1954. She was sunk as a target.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Constant (AM-86) Adroit-class minesweepers Ships built in Portland, Oregon 1942 ships World War II minesweepers of the United States World War II patrol vessels of the United States Ships sunk as targets