USS Finch (AM-9)

History
Name:	USS Finch
Builder:	Standard Shipbuilding Co., New York
Launched:	30 March 1918
Commissioned:	10 September 1918, as Minesweeper No.9
Reclassified:	AM-9, 17 July 1920
Struck:	8 May 1942
Honours and awards:	1 battle star (World War II)
Fate:	Sunk by Japanese bomb, 10 April 1942
General characteristics
Class and type:	Lapwing-class minesweeper
Displacement:	950 long tons (965 t)
Length:	187 ft 10 in (57.25 m)
Beam:	35 ft 6 in (10.82 m)
Draft:	10 ft 4 in (3.15 m)
Speed:	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement:	78
Armament:	2 × 3 in (76 mm) guns

USS Finch (AM-9) was a 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. Finch was named for the finch, and is strictly speaking the only U.S. vessel named for such.

Finch was launched 30 March 1918 by Standard Shipbuilding Co., New York; sponsored by Mrs. F. G. Peabody; and commissioned 10 September 1918, with Lieutenant J. C. Lindberg in command. The ship's fame was secured as the first and only ship-command of then Lieutenant (promoted to lieutenant commander on 26 September 1937, retroactive to 1 July) Hyman G. Rickover, future commander of Naval Reactors and the longest-serving active duty U.S. Naval officer. Rickover commanded Finch from 17 July to 5 October 1937, when the ship was primarily operating at Shanghai, China, to protect American interests during the Battle of Shanghai, the first of 22 major engagements fought between the Chinese and Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

After training and operations with a submarine bell, Finch sailed from New York 9 August 1919 for Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland. Here she based for two months of duty removing the vast number of mines laid in the North Sea during World War I. Finch returned to Charleston on 29 November 1920, and on 3 January 1920 sailed for San Pedro, California, where from 1 March to 29 August she was in reduced commission.

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