.jpg) USSAnderton (SP-530) Photographed probably at theBoston Navy Yard inBoston,Massachusetts, circa August 1917 while preparing for deployment overseas. Twobattleships are in the background, with that in the center being eitherUSSDelaware (Battleship # 28) orUSSNorth Dakota (Battleship # 29). | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake |
|
| Builder | Robert Palmer and Son,Noank,Groton,Connecticut |
| Completed | 1911 |
| Acquired | 18 June 1917 |
| Commissioned | 18 August 1917 |
| Decommissioned | 8 September 1919 |
| Fate | Returned to owner 1919 |
| Notes | In service as commercial fishingtrawlerRaymond J. Anderton 1911-1917 and 1919-1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Patrol vessel andMinesweeper |
| Tonnage | 290gross register tons |
| Length | 139 ft 6 in (42.52 m) |
| Beam | 23 ft 0 in (7.01 m) |
| Draft | 12 ft 0 in (3.66 m) mean |
| Speed | 11knots |
| Armament |
|
USSAnderton (SP-530), originally to have beenUSSRaymond J. Anderton (SP-530), was apatrol vessel andminesweeper that served in theUnited States Navy from 1917 to 1919.
Anderton was built in 1911 byRobert Palmer and Son,Noank,Groton,Connecticut, as thesteam fishingtrawlerRaymond J. Anderton. She was purchased from her owner, T. B. Hayes, for service inWorld War I and delivered to the U.S. Navy on 18 June 1917. Originally she was to have been named USSRaymond J. Anderton, but she was renamed USSAnderton on 28 July 1917 prior tocommissioning as required by aUnited States Department of the Navygeneral order mandating that the names of allsection patrol craft be shortened tosurnames only; during her Navy career, she referred to by both names as well as by the nameR. J. Anderton. She was converted for naval service and commissioned at theBoston Navy Yard atBoston,Massachusetts, on 18 August 1917 as USSAnderton (SP-530).
Originally assigned to the2nd Naval District in southernNew England,Anderton was reassigned during conversion toSquadron 4, Patrol Force, and ordered prepared for "distant service", and soon after commissioning got underway forFrance via theAzores as a unit of the 3rd Patrol Division. Arriving in France in September 1917, her division reinforced the 1st and 2nd Patrol Divisions, which had arrived earlier. Later shifted to the 12th Patrol Division, she operated off the French coast, initially assigned to coastalconvoy escort duties. She and similar trawlers assigned to these duties were soon found to be unsuited to them, and afterUSS Rehoboth (SP-384) foundered offUshant, France, on 4 October 1917, they were reassigned tominesweeping duties.
Anderton was one of the first four ships in her patrol division to have minesweeping gear installed. She departedBrest, France, on 3 December 1917 in company with three similar trawlers, and 6 December 1917 began minesweeping exercises inQuiberon Bay. On 13 February 1918, she became the first of the ships to catch amine in her sweep gear, and on 21 February 1918 she andUSS McNeal (SP-333) cut two mines apiece.
On 12 January 1918,USS P. K. Bauman (SP-377), while operating in afog nearConcarneau, struck a rock and began taking on water.Anderton arrived to render assistance and tookBauman under tow, butBauman sank before the ships could arrive atLorient.
For the remainder World War I,Anderton operated out of Lorient. Besides minesweeping duty and covering the convoy routes fromPenmarch toBouy de Boeufs,Anderton reinforced coastal convoy escorts as required, cleared theTeignouse Channel and other important passages of mines for the passage oftroopships in the vicinity ofBelle Île, and operated at night off Penmarch, using her primitive listening gear ("sea tubes") to detectGermansubmarines. On 5 September 1918, when a German submarinetorpedoed thetransportUSS Mount Vernon (ID-4508),USS Barnegat (SP-1232) andAnderton assistedMount Vernon into Brest for repairs.
In the weeks following the end of World War I on 11 November 1918,Anderton continued minesweeping operations to make sure that shipping could travel safely in areas mined during the war. When that work was completed in the spring of 1919,Anderton departed Brest on the morning of 27 April 1919 bound for theUnited States in company with other U.S. Navy trawlers, but rough weather soon forced them to return to port. AsAnderton did so, she towed the disabledUSS Courtney (SP-375), butCourtney sank that evening about 25 minutes before the returning convoy sightedAr Men light. A northwesterly gale made the sea very rough, and the remaining ships had to fight heavy seas, snow, and hail squalls before they reached Brest on the afternoon of 28 April 1919.Anderton remained at Brest through the summer of 1919.
Anderton wasdecommissioned at Brest on 8 September 1919 and put up for sale abroad. However, her prewar owners reacquired her, and she operated commercially under her original name,Raymond J. Anderton, until 1922.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.