Wreck of USS Gannett (AM-41/AVP-8)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, United States Navy, minehunter / minesweeper (ship)

Laid down at the Todd Brooklyn Shipyard in October 1918 as the 39th member of the Lapwing Class of Minesweepers, USS Gannet commissioned into US Navy service in July 1919 as a member of the US Atlantic Fleet.

Staying in Atlantic waters only long enough to conduct her shakedown and training cruises, the Gannet and her crew reported to San Diego where they joined the US Pacific Fleet in November 1919 and began operations with the fledgling Aircraft Squadron, Pacific Fleet. Spending the next sixteen years serving primarily as a tender to aircraft squadrons, the Gannet departed Pacific waters for aircraft tender duty at the Panama Canal Zone based at Naval Station Coco Solo, where she was reclassified a Small Seaplane Tender and given the new hull number AVP-8.

Standing out of Coco Solo for Norfolk in June 1939, the Gannet became the tender to Patrol Wing 5, Aircraft Scouting Force, US Atlantic Fleet, an assignment which would see ship and crew making regular deployments throughout the Caribbean and Western Atlantic supporting the construction of aviation facilities following the outbreak of War in Europe. Anchored in Bermuda during the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Gannet began her role in the Second World War by supporting the some of the first offensive aircraft patrols carried out against the Axis out of Bermuda, where she would be permanently assigned as the tender to Patrol Squadron 74 and airspace controller for the Bermuda area in January 1942.

Making only periodic sorties during the first half of 1942 due to the nature of her assignment, Gannet was ordered to sea on the 2nd of June 1942 to assist with the British Patrol Yacht HMS Sumar in locating the torpedoed merchantman SS Westmoreland which was reported to be floundering and under attack by a surfaced German U-Boat in the high seas North of Bermuda. Despite exhaustive efforts by both vessels, no contact was made with the Westmoreland or her survivors over the next four days of searching, and on the evening of June 6th the two ships linked up and steamed back towards Bermuda. During the following night, both ships became separated from each other as they steamed South and maintained strict radio silence, and as dawn broke on June 7th the crew aboard the Gannet set about regaining visual contact the Sumar.

At the same time, the patrolling German Submarine U-653 sighted the Gannet through her periscope and closed on an intercepting course. In firing position shortly after 0740hrs, U-653 sent two torpedoes into the path of the slow-moving Gannet, the first of which passed astern of the ship. The second torpedo found its mark however, impacting the Gannet in her Stern and causing severe damage to her wooden hull in addition to knocking out her rudder and propeller. Dead in the water and with several large seams opened up and rapidly flooding the ship, Gannet's Captain passed the word to abandon ship as she began to settle by the Stern. With the main deck awash only four minutes after the torpedo impact survivors topside had little choice but to frantically swim clear of the ship as she reared up and sank Stern-first at this location at 0750hrs on June 7th, 1942, taking 14 of her crew with her to the bottom.

www.navsource.org/archives/11/02041.htm