USS Hornbill (AMc-13)

USS "Hornbill" (AMc-13) was a coastal minesweeper named by the U.S. Navy after the hornbill.

"Hornbill", formerly "J. A. Martinolich", was launched in 1938 by Martinolich Repair Basin, Tacoma, Washington. She was taken over by the Navy and commissioned on 7 December 1940.

West Coast assignment

"Hornbill" was assigned to the mine force in the 12th Naval District. She engaged in coastal sweeping of the main ship channel for magnetic and acoustic type mines. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, her service became more valuable with the Japanese threat to U.S. West Coast sea traffic.

Collision and sinking

On the morning of 30 June 1942, a lumber schooner, Esther Johnson, on passage from Coos Bay, Oregon, collided with "Hornbill" in San Francisco Bay. Approximately one half hour after the collision the minesweeper sank. The crew was saved and a small amount of equipment was safely removed to the lumber schooner. She was stricken from the Navy Register on 24 July 1942.

References

*DANFS
*cite web|accessdate=2007-05-28|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/h8/hornbill-i.htm
title=Hornbill
work=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
publisher=Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy

*cite web|accessdate=2007-05-28
url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/AMc/AMc-13_Hornbill.html
title=USS Hornbill (AMc-13)
work=Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940-1945

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq82-1.htm Casualties: U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Vessels, Sunk or Damaged Beyond Repair during World War II, 7 December 1941-1 October 1945]
* [http://www.america-at-war.net/wwii1942.html America at War]
* [http://www.ibiblio.net/hyperwar/USN/ships/ships-dm.html Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940-1945]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/mine/ Mine Warfare Vessels]