USS ''Swallow'' (AM-4) was a

U.S. 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 o ...

. ''Swallow'' was laid down at New York City on 18 March 1918 by the

Todd Shipyard Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United S ...

Corp.; launched on Independence Day 1918; sponsored by Miss Sara V. Brereton; and commissioned on 8 October 1918. She served until 19 February 1938, when she ran aground at

Kanaga Island Kanaga Island ( ale, Kanaga; russian: Остров Канага) is a part of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The island measures long and between wide with an area of , making it the 42nd largest island in the U ...

History

North Atlantic operations

Following commissioning, ''Swallow'' underwent minor adjustments and prepared for foreign service. On 6 April 1919, she steamed out of Boston Harbor, bound for Inverness, Scotland. There she joined the

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 ...

Detachment of the Northern Barrage. For most of the remainder of 1919. ''Swallow'' swept mines from the

North Sea Mine Barrage The North Sea Mine Barrage, also known as the Northern Barrage, was a large minefield laid easterly from the Orkney Islands to Norway by the United States Navy (assisted by the Royal Navy) during World War I. The objective was to inhibit the m ...

laid by the Allied and Associated Powers during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

West Coast operations

The

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 ...

returned to the United States late in 1919 and put into the navy yard at Charleston, South Carolina, for overhaul and repairs. Early in 1920, she sailed for the

U.S. West Coast The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

and then north to

Bremerton, Washington Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...

. For the next 18 years, ''Swallow'' operated along the northwestern

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

coast of North America, spending much of her time in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

n waters. In 1934, she became a unit of the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large v ...

Survey Expedition.

''Swallow'' runs aground

On 19 February 1938, ''Swallow'' ran aground at

and was stranded there. The crew was rescued by , which was cited by the Department of the Navy for the rescue."Edward H. Smith Biography", Retired U.S. Coast Guard Flag Officers, U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office, p 6 Salvage efforts soon proved impracticable and her name was struck from the

Navy Directory 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 author ...

on 5 May 1938.

Notes

;Citations ;References used *

External links

*
USS ''Swallow''

* ttp://www.amnwr.com/ShipwreckList.htm Shipwrecks and Groundings in the Aleutian Islands, Islands off the Alaska Peninsula, and Pribilof Islands {{DEFAULTSORT:Swallow (AM-4) Lapwing-class minesweepers Ships built in Brooklyn 1918 ships World War I minesweepers of the United States Shipwrecks in the Bering Sea Maritime incidents in 1938