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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

Call sign (1919):
George - Boy - Cast - Fox

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 by the 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 and transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal

Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for transfer to the War Shipping Administration as June 1947

Transferred to Venezuela 9 June 1947 and renamed Felipe Larrazabel (R-11)

Decommissioned in 1962 and abandoned.

Specifications:

Displacement 840 t.

Length 187' 10"

Beam 35' 5"

Draft 8' 10"

Speed 14 kts.

Complement 85

Armament: Two 3"/50 dual purpose mounts

1941 - One 20mm mount or smaller

Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox 200psi boilers, one 1,200shp Harlan and Hollingsworth Corp. triple expansion engine, one shaft.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
USS Auk (Minesweeper No. 38)
	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
	73k	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. U.S. Navy photo NH 45252	Original photo: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
USC&GS Discoverer
	113k	Towing USC&GS Westdahl to the Alaska working grounds Photo theb3932 from NOAA's Fleet Then and Now - Sailing for Science Collection	Robert Hurst
	90k	Photos theb0195, theb0196, and theb3933 from NOAA's Fleet Then and Now - Sailing for Science Collection
	96k
	107k
	102k	c. 1930's BuShips photo 25330 from the National Archives	Mike Green
	67k	c. 1931 In the Pacific Captain Harry Garber, C&GS Photo theb0103 from NOAA's Fleet Then and Now - Sailing for Science Collection	Robert Hurst
	126k	c. 1935 Aleutian Islands, AK	Original photo: Office of the Oceanograper of the Navy Replacement photo: NOAA Website
	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
	108k	c. 1940 Old Woman's Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska Survey crew heading out from Discoverer Photo theb0084 from NOAA's Fleet Then and Now - Sailing for Science Collection	Robert Hurst
Felipe Larrazabel (R-11)
	51k	c. 1952 Venezuelan Navy photo	Robert Hurst
	169k	c. 2009 Abandoned somewhere in Venezuela	Tim Schwabedissen