History
United States
NameUSS Hornbill
BuilderMartinolich Repair Basin, Tacoma, Washington
Launched1938, as J. A. Martinolich
Commissioned7 December 1940
Stricken24 July 1942
FateSank after collision, 30 June 1942
General characteristics
TypeCoastal minesweeper
Displacement195 long tons (198 t)
Length83 ft 2 in (25.35 m)
Beam20 ft 1 in (6.12 m)
Draft5 ft (1.5 m)
Depth of hold10 ft (3.0 m)
Speed10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement11
Armament1 × .30 cal (7.62 mm) machine gun

USS Hornbill (AMc-13) was a coastal minesweeper of the United States Navy, named after the hornbill.

The ship was launched as the fishing boat J. A. Martinolich in 1938 by the 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 Esther Johnson, a 208 ft 4 in (63.50 m), 1,104 GRT[1] steam lumber schooner on passage from Coos Bay, Oregon, collided with Hornbill in San Francisco Bay. Approximately thirty minutes 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 Naval Vessel Register on 24 July 1942.

References

  1. ↑ Lloyds (1943). "Lloyd's Register" (PDF). Lloyd's Register (through PlimsollShipData). Retrieved 24 August 2014.
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