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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Woodcock (AT[O] 145)



Call sign:
Nan - Fox - Xray - Xray

ex-AT-145
ex-AM-14



Call sign (1939):
Negat - Int - King - Prep

ex-Minesweeper No. 14



Call sign (1919):
George - Sail - Fox - Jig
Lapwing Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 19 October 1917 by the Chester Shipbuilding Co., Chester, PA
  • Launched 12 May 1918
  • Commissioned USS Woodcock, Minesweeper No. 14, 19 February 1919
  • Reclassified AM-14, 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned 5 May 1922 at Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH
  • Recommissioned 21 February 1924
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Tug, AT-145, 1 June 1942
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Tug (Old), AT(O)-145, 15 May 1944
  • Decommissioned 30 September 1946 at Charleston, SC
  • Struck from the Navy Register 23 April 1947
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission 4 August 1947
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for transfer to the War Shipping Administration as January 1948
  • Sold for scrap 19 December 1947 to the Potomac Shipwrecking Co., Inc. of Pope's Creek, MD.

    AM-14 Specifications:

  • Displacement 950 t.
    1944 - 1,350 t.
  • Length 187' 10"
  • Beam 35' 6'
  • Draft 9' 9"
    1944 - 13' 1"
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 85
    1944 - 75
  • Armament: Two 3" gun mounts
    1944 - Two 3'/50 dual purpose mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, one triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, one shaft
    1944 - Two Babcock and Wilcox header boilers, one 1,400shp Harlan and Hollingsworth 200psi saturated steam vertical triple expansion reciprocating engine.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Woodcock (Minesweeper No. 14)
    Woodcock 110k While taking part in clearing the North Sea mine barrage, "The fleet put in (to) Stavanger, a bustling town in Norway, made prosperous by the war." (quoted from the original 1919 vintage caption). Woodcock is in the foreground. In the left background are (from front to rear): USS SC-356, USS SC-40, USS Eider (Minesweeper No. 17), USS Sanderling (Minesweeper No. 37) - probable identification, USS Auk (Minesweeper No. 38) and an unidentified minesweeper
    U. S. Navy photo from the Navy Recruitment Bureau, New York
    U.S. Navy photo NH 99789
    (Unidentified minesweeper believed to be Tanager, Minesweeper No. 5, ATCS Paul Tuck    		 Original photo: Jon Burdett
    Replacement photo: Naval Historical Center
    USS Woodcock (AM 14)
    Woodcock 79k . Sam Betterton
    Woodcock 71k Calvin Betterton, who served in Woodcock from 19 January 1933 to 15 October 1934
    Commanding Officers
    01LTJG W. J. Fanger, USN19 February 1919
    02LTJG Harry A. Wentworth, USN - Awarded the Navy Cross1919
    03LTJG Frank Jurgensen, USN1920
    ??LT Clyde Charlie Laws, USN21 February 1924
    ??LT Buell Fromer Brandt, USN21 February 1924
    ??LT Joseph Orpha Saurette, USN1934
    ??LT Robert Ira Franklin Fravel, USN1936
    ??LCDR Paul Eugene Howard, USNJuly 1941
    ??LT Jerence Warner Greene, USNJuly 1941 - September 1942
    ??LT Benjamin P. Clark, USCG - USCGA Class of 19381943
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Woodcock (AM 14)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Minesweeper (AM) Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Ship Index Back to the Fleet Tug (AT) Photo IndexBack to the Fleet Tug (Old) - (AT[O]) Photo Index
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
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