USS Ardent (AM-340)
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USS Ardent (AM 340) off the coast of San Francisco, California on 5 June 1944.
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Name: | USS Ardent (AM-340) |
| Builder: | General Engineering & Dry Dock Company, Alameda, California |
| Laid down: | 20 February 1943 |
| Launched: | 22 June 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 25 May 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 January 1947 |
| Reclassified: | MSF-340, 7 February 1955 |
| Struck: | 1 July 1972 |
| Honors and awards: |
4 battle stars, World War II |
| Fate: | Transferred to Mexico, 19 September 1972 |
| History | |
 Mexico
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| Name: | ARM Juan N. Álvarez (C77) |
| Namesake: | Juan N. Álvarez |
| Acquired: | 19 September 1972 |
| Reclassified: | G09 |
| Reclassified: | P108, 1993 |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2007[update] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Auk-class minesweeper |
| Displacement: | 890 tons |
| Length: | 221 ft 3 in (67 m) |
| Beam: | 32 (10 m) |
| Draft: | 10 ft 9 in (3 m) |
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h) |
| Complement: | 100 |
| Armament: |
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The second USS Ardent (AM-340) was a Auk-class minesweeper in the United States Navy.
Ardent was originally laid down as HMS Buffalo (BAM-8), for the Royal Navy on 20 February 1943 at Alameda, California, by the General Engineering & Drydock Co.; rescheduled for delivery to the United States Navy; renamed Ardent and redesignated AM-340 on 24 May 1943; launched on 22 June 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Bernadette Armes, the daughter-in-law of George A. Armes, President of the General Engineering & Drydock Co., and commissioned on 25 May 1944, Lt. Comdr. Allan D. Curtis in command.
During the first seven months of her career, Ardent escorted convoys and ships operating between the west coast of the United States and the Hawaiian Islands, though she also ranged as far as Eniwetok in the Marshalls and Tarawa in the Gilberts.
The highlight of her service during this period occurred on 13 November. Ardent and the frigate USS Rockford (PF-48) were escorting a six-ship convoy midway between Honolulu and the United States. At 12:32, Ardent's sonar picked up a submarine contact. Ardent attacked first at 12:41, firing a 24-charge "hedgehog" pattern, and again at 12:46 with a second "hedgehog" pattern. Rockford left her escort station to assist, and fired her first barrage of rockets from her "hedgehog" at 13:08; two explosions followed, before an underwater detonation rocked the ship.
Ardent carried out two more attacks and the frigate dropped 13 depth charges to administer the coup de grace. The resulting explosions caused a loss of all contact with the enemy submarine. Wreckage recovered on the scene—deck planks, ground cork covered with diesel oil, a wooden slat from a vegetable crate with Japanese writing and advertisements on it, pieces of varnished mahogany inscribed in Japanese, and a piece of deck planking containing Japanese builders' inscriptions—indicated a definite "kill". Postwar research revealed the sunken submarine to be the Japanese submarine I-12, which had sailed from the Inland Sea on 4 October 1944 to disrupt American shipping between the west coast and the Hawaiian Islands. In sinking I-12, Ardent and USS Rockford unwittingly avenged the atrocity I-12 had perpetrated on 30 October when, after sinking the Liberty ship SS John A. Johnson, the submarine had rammed and sunk the lifeboats and rafts and then machine-gunned the 70 survivors. Among the ten men killed were five enlisted men of the merchantman's Navy armed guard detachment.
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