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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Pelican (AVP 6)



Call sign:
Nan - Easy - Fox - King

ex-AM-27
ex-Minesweeper No. 27



Call sign (1919):
George - Tare - Sail - Watch
Lapwing Class Minesweeper:

  • The first Pelican was laid down 10 November 1917 by the Gas Engine and Power Co., Morris Height, NY
  • Launched 15 June 1918
  • Commissioned USS Pelican, Minesweeper No.27, 10 October 1918
  • Designated AM-27, 17 February 1920
  • Decommissioned 3 May 1922 at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii
  • Recommissioned, 17 August 1922 and modified to serve as an aircraft tender
  • Reclassified as a Small Seaplane Tender, AVP-6, 22 January 1936
  • Disguised as a tuna clipper under the name Normandie II and operated as a Q-ship from 26 May 1942 to 16 April 1943
  • Decommissioned 30 November 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 19 December 1945
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration in November 1946 and sold for scrap.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 950 t.
    1936 - 1,350 t.
  • Length 187' 10"
  • Beam 35' 6'
  • Draft 9' 10"
    1936 - 13' 1"
  • Speed 14 kts.
    1936 - 13' 5"
  • Complement 78
    1936 - 85
  • Armament: Two 3" gun mounts and machine guns
    1936 - Two 3"/50 dual purpose mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox header boilers, one 1,400shp Harlan and Hollingsworth 200psi saturated steam vertical triple expansion reciprocating engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Pelican (Minesweeper No. 27)
    Pelican 73k Namesake: Pelican - Any of a genus of large web-footed birds with a very large bill and distenible gular pouch in which fish are caught Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 28 February 2020
    Pelican 58k Photos from "Sweeping the North Sea Mine Barrage" by the U.S. Navy North Sea Minesweeping Detachment Joe Radigan
    Pelican 56k
    Pelican 230k
    Pelican 119k
    Pelican 91k
    Pelican 172k
    Pelican 68k
    Pelican 312k
    USS Pelican (AM 27)
    Pelican 1268k Photo of George McHugh from the 5 August 1898 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, NY Liz Haren, Great Niece of George McHugh
    Pelican 862k 28 February 1920
    1920 Census report
    Pigeon 121k Minesweepers laid up at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. View taken circa 1922 or somewhat later, showing several minesweepers laid up in reserve at the end of 1010 Dock. Identifiable ships at left include USS Oriole (AM-7), with USS Pigeon (AM-47) inboard of her. Pelican is the outboard ship in the center
    U.S. Navy photo NH 45242-A    		 Naval Historical Center
    Pigeon 142k Minesweepers laid up at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. View taken circa 1922 or somewhat later, showing several minesweepers laid up in reserve at the end of 1010 Dock. Identifiable ships at left include USS Oriole (AM-7) outboard, with USS Pigeon (AM-47) inboard of her. Pelican is the outboard ship in the center
    U.S. Navy photo NH 45243-A
    Oriole 189k Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory: View taken circa 1922 or somewhat later, looking toward 1010 Dock and into the Southeast Loch, from over Ford Island. Several laid-up minesweepers are present. USS Thrush (AM-18) is at left, moored to a buoy with a sister ship. Tied up at the end of 1010 dock are USS Oriole (AM-7), USS Pigeon (AM-47) and USS Pelican (AM-27). A Hog Island-type freighter at right is probably USS Procyon (AG-11), flagship of the Battle Fleet's Base Force. A fleet tug is in the center, hauled out on the Navy Yard Marine Railway
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 45243    		 Robert Hurst
    Pelican 161k Pelican supporting two probable Curtiss HS-1L aircraft near Pearl Harbor in February 1924
    National Archives photo 80-G-1009755    		 Mike Green
    Pelican 2082k A PN-9 flying boat and the minesweeper Pelican circa 1925 . The fabric from the plane's lower wings has been torn away for use by its crew to sail the aircraft in the Pacific Ocean. The plane had been forced down while en route to Hawaii from California and is in the process of being craned aboard the Pelican
    U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Museum/Naval Aviation Museum, Photo 2012.004.082
    Pelican 275k Original photo: Seen here tending seaplanes, c. August 1922 to 21 January 1936. Still wearing her minesweeper hull number (27)
    U.S. Navy photo
    Replacement photo: En route to Pearl Harbor, with PN-9 number 1 on board, after the plane was forced down on a flight from the West coast to Hawaii in September, 1925
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 42869    		 Original photo: Hazegray & Underway Website
    Replacement photo: Mike Green
    USS Pelican (AVP 6)
    Pelican 44k c. 1936.
    Hawaii
    Photo by Edward Cwalinski, U.S. Army, Ret.    		 Barry Litchfield
    Pelican 292k 24 April 1942
    Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA
    Undergoing conversion to a "Q" ship
    National Archives photo 19-N-29311    		 Mike Green
    Pelican 172k Pelican underway off the southern California coast between May 1942 and April 1943 after conversion to the "tuna boat" Q-ship Normandie II. In April 1942 she received structural modifications at the Mare Island Navy yard that included raised bulwarks around the bow, a new foremast just forward of the bridge, and an extra cabin behind the bridge. Her disguise was then completed by covering over her two 3" guns forward, building a "bait tank" on the fantail that actually housed a Curtiss SOC Seagull floatplane, adding a crow's nest on the mainmast, and fitting prominent tuna boat ratlines on both masts
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 96553
    Pelican 100k c. 1945
    Off Key West, FL    		 Jim Geldert
    Pelican 41k
    Pelican 89k
    Commanding Officers
    01LT George E. McHugh, USN - Awarded the Navy Cross (1920)10 October 1918
    02LTJG Edward Burke Peterson, USN1 July 1920 - 31 March 1921
    03LT Edward Danielson, USN17 August 1922 - 23 November 1922
    04LT Doile Greenwell, USN23 November 1922
    05LT William Reginald Spear, USN15 October 1929
    06LT Robert Stevens Savin, USN1932
    07LCDR Aaron Putnam Storrs, III, USN - USNA Class of 1923
    Awarded the Legion of Merit (1943) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		November 1935 - July 1937
    08LT Carl Hawkinsmith Barnes Morrison, USN1938 - June 1939
    09LT Howell Jesse Dyson, USNJune 1939 - June 1941
    10LT Willard Arthur Saunders, USN1940 - 1941
    11LCDR John Clement "Dopey" Alderman, USN - USNA Class of 1928
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1942) and the Legion of Merit with Combat V (1951) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		June 1941 - 25 June 1942
    12CDR Curtis Howell Hutchings, USN - USNA Class of 1933
    Awarded the Legion of Merit (1944) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		25 June 1942
    13LCDR George L. Hoffman, USNR8 September 1942
    14LCDR Eliott Lindsay James, Jr., USN19 October 1942 - 20 February 1943
    15LT Sidney G. Richardson, USNR20 February 1943 - 22 April 1944
    16LT Douglas Darwood McIver, USN22 April 1944 - 7 April 1945
    17LTJG Edgar Everett Chance, USNR7 April 1945 - 12 June 1945
    18LT Wilfred C. Fish, USNR12 June 1945 - 8 October 1945
    19LTJG Dayton B. Weil, USNR8 October 1945 - 30 November 1945
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Pelican (AM-27)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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