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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Turkey (AT[O] 143)



Call sign:
Nan - Fox - Peter - Fox

ex-AT-143
ex-AM-13



Call sign (1939):
Negat - Int - Jig - Fox

ex-Minesweeper No. 13



Call sign (1919):
George - Rush - Quack - Vice
Lapwing Class Minesweeper:

  • The first Turkey was laid down 19 August 1917 at Chester Shipbuilding Co., Chester, PA
  • Launched 30 April 1918
  • Commissioned USS Turkey, Minesweeper No. 13, 13 December 1918
  • Designated AM-13, 17 February 1920
  • Decommissioned 12 April 1922 at Pearl Harbor, TH and laid up in the Reserve Fleet at Pearl Harbor
  • Recommissioned 15 August 1938 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Tug, AT-143, 1 June 1942
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Tug (Old), AT(O)-143, 15 May 1944
  • Decommissioned 6 November 1945 at San Francisco, CA
  • Struck from the Navy Register 28 November 1945
  • Sold for scrap and delivered to the Hawley Forge and Manufacturing Co. of San Francisco on 30 December 1946.

    AM-13 Specifications:

  • Displacement 950 t.
    1944 - 1,350 t.
  • Length 187' 10"
  • Beam 35' 6'
  • Draft 9' 10"
    1944 - 13' 1"
  • Speed 14 kts.
    1944 - 12 kts.
  • Complement 78
    1944 - 75
  • Armament: Two 3" gun mounts and machine guns
    1944 - Two 3"/50 dual purpose mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, one shaft
    1944 - Two 200psi saturated steam Babcock and Wilcox header boilers, one 1,400shp Chester Shipbuilding Co. vertical triple expansion reciprocating steam engine.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Turkey (Minesweeper No. 13)
    Turkey 136k Fitting out at the Chester Shipbuilding Company shipyard, Chester, Pennsylvania, 20 October 1918. The incomplete ship in the left distance is SS Auburn, which briefly served as USS Auburn
    (ID 3842)     in 1919.
    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1974.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 79068         		Naval Historical Center
    USS Turkey (Minesweeper No. 13)
    Lapwing 118k Review of the Atlantic Fleet Minesweeping Squadron, November 1919. Ships of the squadron anchored in the Hudson River, off New York City, while being reviewed by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels on 24 November 1919, following their return to the United States after taking part in clearing the North Sea mine barrage. Identifiable ships present include (left column, from front to rear): Turkey; USS Quail (Minesweeper No. 15) with SC-354 alongside; USS Lark (Minesweeper No. 21) with SC-208 alongside; Swan (Minesweeper No. 34) with SC-356 alongside; and USS Flamingo (Minesweeper No. 32) with an unidentified submarine chaser alongside. (right column, from front to rear): USS Thrush (Minesweeper No. 18); Two unidentified minesweepers, one of which is probably Lapwing (Minesweeper No. 1); USS Kingfisher (Minesweeper No. 25); and, in no particular order, tugs Patapsco and Patuxent. USS SC-245 is at the far right, passing between the two
    anchored columns.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 44904    		 Naval Historical Center
    USS Turkey (AT 143)
    Turkey 40k In drydock National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors
    Commanding Officers
    01LT John H. McDonald, USN13 December 1918
    00LT Ove P. O. Hansen, USN1939
    ??LCDR Harry Roberts Carson, Jr., USN - Retired as RADM1940
    00LCDR Thompson Fletcher Fowler, USN1941
    00LT Samuel B. Neff, USNWWII
    00LT Robert J. Melchor, USNWWII
    00LTJG Robert A. Botsford, USNWWII
    00LT J. M. C. Tighe, USNWWII
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Turkey (AM 13)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors
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