| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Swallow |
| Builder: | Todd Shipyard Co., New York |
| Laid down: | 18 March 1918 |
| Launched: | 4 July 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 8 October 1918 |
| Struck: | 5 May 1938 |
| Fate: | Ran aground at Kanaga Island, Alaska, 19 February 1938 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Lapwing-class minesweeper |
| Displacement: | 950 long tons (965 t) est. |
| Length: | 187 ft 10 in (57.25 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft 6 in (10.82 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement: | 78 |
| Armament: | 2 × 3 in (76 mm) guns |
USS Swallow (AM-4) was an Lapwing-class minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.
Swallow was laid down at New York City on 18 March 1918 by the Todd Shipyard Corp.; launched on Independence Day 1918; sponsored by Miss Sara V. Brereton; and commissioned on 8 October 1918, Lt. Bennie Clark Philips in command.
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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 Detachment of the Northern Barrage. For most of the remainder of 1919. Swallow swept mines from the North Sea Mine Barrage laid by the Allied and Associated Powers during World War I.
The minesweeper 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 and then north to Bremerton, Washington. For the next 18 years, Swallow operated along the northwestern Pacific coast of North America, spending much of her time in Alaskan waters. In 1934, she became a unit of the Aleutian Islands Survey Expedition.
On 19 February 1938, Swallow ran aground at Kanaga Island and was stranded there. Salvage efforts soon proved impracticable and her name was struck from the Navy List on 5 May 1938.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here. Photos from Quartermaster G.B.Broman aboard the USS Swallow show that this was not the first time the Swallow was left "high and dry." Due to the extreme tides in the Wrangler Straits in Alaska the Swallow was left completely out of the water on September 9, 1921.
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