USS ''Tercel'' (AM-386) was an acquired by 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 ...

for the dangerous task of removing mines from

minefields A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...

laid in the water to prevent ships from passing. ''Tercel'' was named after the " tercel", the male of various hawks, especially of the peregrine falcon and the

goshawk Goshawk may refer to several species of birds of prey, mainly in the genus ''Accipiter'': * Northern goshawk, ''Accipiter gentilis'', often referred to simply as the goshawk, since it is the only goshawk found in much of its range (in Europe and N ...

. ''Tercel'' was laid down on 16 May 1944 by the

American Ship Building Company The American Ship Building Company was the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the Second World War. It started as Cleveland Shipbuilding in Cleveland, Ohio in 1888 and opened the yard in Lorain, Ohio in 1898. It changed its name to t ...

, Lorain, Ohio; launched on 16 December 1944; sponsored by Mrs. J. H. Thompson; and commissioned on 21 August 1945.

East Coast operations

Following trials in

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

, ''Tercel'' headed for the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

via the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

waterway and the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. She arrived at Boston on 7 September and was outfitted. Sailing on 2 November, ''Tercel'' reached

Little Creek, Virginia Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

, the next day for her shakedown cruise. ''Tercel'' was assigned to Mine Forces, Atlantic Fleet, on 1 January 1946, when that organization was activated. She stood out of Norfolk, Virginia, a week later and conducted exercises in the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

until 21 March. In April, she was assigned to the Mine Warfare School at

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, and supported that establishment until 2 July 1946. 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 ...

conducted local operations and participated in exercises along the eastern seaboard from the Caribbean to

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

Assignment to the Mediterranean

On 20 July 1951 when she arrived at Charleston, South Carolina. ''Tercel'' stood out of Charleston in early September 1951 for her first deployment to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

. While there, she called at

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

and ports in Italy, France, Malta, and Greece. Upon her return to Charleston on 6 February 1952, she resumed her normal U.S. East Coast routine.

Operation Dew I

Operation Dew I was a Chemical, Biological, Radio-logical (CBR) warfare experiment. Dew I consisted of five separate trials from 26 March 1952 until 21 April 1952 that were designed to test the feasibility of maintaining a large aerosol cloud released offshore until it drifted over land, achieving a large area coverage (LAC). U.S. National Research Council, Subcommittee on Zinc Cadmium Sulfide. ''Toxicologic Assessment of the Army's Zinc Cadmium Sulfide Dispersion'',
Google Books
, National Academies Press, 1997, pp. 44–77, (). The tests released zinc cadmium sulfide along a line approximately off the coast of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Two of the trials dispersed clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide over large areas of all three U.S. states. The tests affected over 60,000 square miles (150,000 km²) of populated coastal region in the U.S. southeast.http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=5739&page=122, ''Toxicologic Assessment of the Army's Zinc Cadmium Sulfide Dispersion'', p. 74. The Dew I releases were from a Navy minesweeper, the .

Second Mediterranean assignment

''Tercel'' was again deployed to the Mediterranean from 21 April to 26 October 1953. Then, after approximately eight months of operations in home waters, the minesweeper was transferred to the

Atlantic Reserve Fleet The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and s ...

for a preinactivation overhaul.

Decommissioning

The ship was placed out of commission, in reserve, at

Orange, Texas Orange is a city and the county seat of Orange County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 19,324. It is the easternmost city in Texas, located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, and is from Hous ...

, on 10 November 1954. On 7 February 1955, she was redesignated MSF-386 and reclassified a steel-hulled fleet minesweeper. ''Tercel'' 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 1 July 1972.

Fate

The Naval Vessel Register lists ''Tercel'' as "Disposed of, type of disposal not known" and has a note saying: "Presumed scrapped date unknown", this is incorrect, she was not scrapped. ''Tercel'' was used as a Salvage Training Hulk from 1972 to 1988. She was sunk as a target on 6 April 1988, being towed to the target area by the USS Grapple (ARS-53).

References

External links

*
Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940–1945 AM-386 USS ''Tercel''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tercel (AM-386) Auk-class minesweepers of the United States Navy Ships built in Lorain, Ohio 1944 ships World War II minesweepers of the United States