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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

USS Discoverer (ARS 3)



Call sign:
Nan - Queen - Mike - Nan

ex-USC&GS Discoverer
ex-USS Auk (AM 38)
ex-Minesweeper No. 38

Auk served both the U. S. Navy and the Coast & Geodetic Survey.


Auk served the Navies of the United States and Venezuela.
Lapwing Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 20 June 1918 at Todd Shipyard Corp., New York City, NY; Launched, 28 September 1918; Commissioned USS Auk, Minesweeper No. 38, 31 January 1919 at New York Navy Yard; Designated AM-38, 17 July 1920; Transferred to the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 7 April 1922 and renamed USC&GS Discoverer. Commemorated by Discoverer Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska, and Discoverer Island, a small island in that bay. Returned to U.S. Navy custody 26 August 1941; Reclassified as a Rescue and Salvage Ship, ARS-3 and placed in service with a civilian crew; Struck from the Navy Register 28 January 1947; Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal; Transferred to Venezuela 9 June 1947 as Felipe Larrazabel (R-11); Decommissioned by Venezuela in 1962. Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 840 t.; Length 187' 10"; Beam 35' 5"; Draft 8' 10"; Speed 14 kts; Complement 85; Armament two 3"/50s (as AM 38), 20mm or smaller (as ARS); Propulsion two Babcock and Wilcox 200psi boilers, Harlan and Hollingsworth Corp. 1,200shp triple expansion engine, one shaft.

Click on thumbnail
for full size image		 Size Image Description Source
USS Auk (Minesweeper No. 38)
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). USS Woodcock (Minesweeper No. 14) 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, is Auk and an unidentified minesweeper.
U. S. Navy photo from the Navy Recruitment Bureau, New York
U.S. Navy photo NH 99789		 Naval Historical Center
Auk 205k Auk, in heavy seas en route to Bermuda, attempting to take on fuel from Black Hawk (Destroyer Tender
No. 9), 10 November 1919. The weathered remains of Auk's single letter code, from her service in the North Sea mine clearance operation, is visable beneath her bow number.
US Navy photo NH 45252		 DANFS
USC&GS Discoverer
Auk 126k c. 1935
Aleutian Islands, AK
 Original photo: Office of the Oceanograper of the Navy
Replacement photo: NOAA Website
Flamingo 166k 4 July 1939
Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Island, Alaska
Coast and Geodetic Survey Ships Guide, ex-Flamingo (AM 32) (in foreground) and Discoverer. Taking on fuel from USS Chester (CA 27)
NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; C&GS Season's Report Eickelberg 1939-32.		 NOAA Website
Felipe Larrazabel (R-11)
Auk 51k c. 1952
Venezuelan Navy photo		 Robert Hurst
View the Auk (AM-38)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Naval Minewarfare Association
Association of Minemen
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This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
© 2006 Joseph M. Radigan © 1996 - 2006 NavSource Naval History. All Rights Reserved.