Mine Planter Service (U.S. Army)

USAMP MP-7 Major General Wallace F. Randolph, Army M 1 Mine Planter Hull No. 480. Records (#742), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

The U.S. Army Mine Planter Service (AMPS) was an outgrowth of civilian crewed Army mine planter ships dating back to 1904. It was established on July 22, 1918 by War Department Bulletin 43 and placed the Mine Planter Service under the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps. Its purview was to install and maintain the underwater mine fields that were part of the principal armament of U.S. coastal fortifications, including those at the approaches to the Panama Canal and the defenses of Manila Bay in the Philippines.

Prior to the formal establishment of the Mine Planter Service, the Coast Artillery Corps had operated ships designated as Mine Planters, as well as an assortment of smaller vessels to establish and maintain the coastal defense mine fields. The ships, originating with vessels drafted into the work, were replaced by special construction in 1904 and 1909. Another block began with one ship, Gen. William M. Graham of 1917, and a group of nine constructed in 1919 to bring the fleet up to twenty planters in 1920. A massive Army reduction reduced that fleet to seven planters and one cable ship, named Joseph Henry. Many of those ships were transferred to the U.S. Lighthouse Service, later becoming U.S. Coast Guard vessels. No new ships were built until 1937 when one ship, the Lt. Col. Ellery W. Niles was delivered as the first diesel-electric ship in the service. No further vessels would be planned until the block of ships in progress when the U.S. entered World War II; these were delivered 1942–1943.

Ship's crews were originally civilian mariners, operating the ship under a Coast Artillery officer, who also commanded the embarked enlisted mine specialists. Friction had developed, in particular over civilian ship's officers and crews leaving to take other employment during operations. In 1916 the Chief of Coast Artillery recommended legislation militarizing these vessels. Two years later Congress granted the request.