Allied Warships

USS Gannet (AVP 8)

Minesweeper of the Lapwing class

NavyThe US Navy
TypeMinesweeper
ClassLapwing 
PennantAVP 8 
ModSeaplane tender 
Built byTodd Shipyard Corp. (New York, New York, U.S.A.) 
Ordered 
Laid down1 Oct 1918 
Launched19 Mar 1919 
Commissioned10 Jul 1919 
Lost7 Jun 1942 
Loss position35° 50'N, 65° 38'W
History

Reclassified as a small seaplane tender AVP-8 on 22 January 1936

At 0420 hours on 7 June 1942 the German submarine U-653 fired one torpedo at the USS Gannet (Lt. Francis Edward Nuessle) under escort by the British armed yacht HMS Sumarr, but the torpedo detonated after 1 minute 40 seconds without damaging the ships. The ships were returning from the fruitless search for the torpedoed merchant Westmoreland which was sunk by U-566 on 1 June. At 0742 hours U-653 attacked again and hit the USS Gannet with one torpedo. She sank within four minutes in position 35º50'N, 65º38'W. Feiler reported a hit at the stern of the yacht after 58 seconds, but a result could not be observed. 22 survivors were rescued by two aicraft from squadron VP-74, which made daring landings in heavy seas and 40 others were picked up by the American high speed minesweeper USS Hamilton.

 

Hit by U-boat
Sunk on 7 Jun 1942 by U-653 (Feiler).

U-boat AttackSee our U-boat attack entry for the USS Gannet

Commands listed for USS Gannet (AVP 8)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

CommanderFromTo
1Lt. Jack Pendleton Monroe, USN26 Jun 193915 Jun 1941
2Lt. Francis Edward Nuessle, USN15 Jun 19417 Jun 1942

You can help improve our commands section
Click here to Submit events/comments/updates for this vessel.
Please use this if you spot mistakes or want to improve this ships page.

Media links


U-Boat Attack Logs

Daniel Morgan and Bruce Taylor


amazon.co.uk
(£ 38.25)

Return to the Allied Warships section



As an Amazon Associate uboat.net earns a commission from qualifying purchases.