USS Whippoorwill (AM-35)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Ordered: | as Minesweeper No. 35 |
| Laid down: | 12 December 1917 |
| Launched: | 4 July 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 1 April 1919 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 April 1946 |
| Struck: | 10 June 1946 |
| Fate: | turned over to the Maritime Commission, 6 November 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 840 tons |
| Length: | 187 ft 10 in (57.25 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft 5 in (10.80 m) |
| Draught: | 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m) |
| Propulsion: | not known |
| Speed: | 15 knots |
| Complement: | 66 |
| Armament: | none |
USS Whippoorwill (AM-35) was a Lapwing-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.
The first Whippoorwill to be so-named by the Navy, Minesweeper No. 35 was laid down on 12 December 1917 at Mobile, Alabama, by the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company; launched on 4 July 1918; sponsored by Miss M. I. Evans; and commissioned on 1 April 1919, Lt. Birney O. Halliwill in command.
After fitting out, Whippoorwill departed Boston, Massachusetts, on 3 July 1919, bound for Scotland. Operating subsequently from the port of Kirkwall, the minesweeper participated in the clearing of the North Sea Mine Barrage as part of Division 3, Minesweeping Squadron, Atlantic Fleet. Hair-trigger mines and frequent foul weather made sweeping the barrage a difficult and dangerous mission; but, by late in the autumn of 1919, the task was completed by a miscellaneous group of new minesweepers, chartered naval trawlers, and submarine chasers.
Returning to the United States in November 1919, Whipporwill was later assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Having been classified as AM-35 on 17 July 1920, the minesweeper arrived at Pearl Harbor, her new home port, on 1 March 1921. She would operate out of that base for the next 20 years, with brief periods spent as station ship at Pago Pago, Samoa, between 1931 and 1934.
Whippoorwill's prime duty was service to the Fleet. Besides filling the role for which she was designed—sweeping and laying mines—upon occasion she towed targets and plane-guarded.
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