USS Barnegat (AVP-10) - Early Career

Early Career

Barnegat was laid down on 27 October 1939 at Bremerton, Washington, by the Puget Sound Navy Yard and launched on 23 May 1941, sponsored by Mrs. Lucien F. Kimball. Barnegat was commissioned on 3 July 1941 with Commander Felix L. Baker in command.

For the next three months, Barnegat remained at Puget Sound, conducting sea trials and testing equipment, such as her large aircraft handling crane. The “years of operation of patrol planes in the Fleet and the increasingly important role played by these planes” had also shown that the Lapwing-class converted minesweepers fell “far short of the characteristics needed” for mobile tenders to operate patrol planes “where shore facilities were not available.” This meant specifications that included a draft that would “permit entrance into the greater number of small harbors which might be suitable for seaplane anchorages,” the ability to tend a 12-plane patrol squadron, high maneuverability, and the ability to contribute to her own defense.

Her trials completed by mid-October 1941, Barnegat stood out of Seattle, Washington, on 15 October 1941 and, later that afternoon, retrieved her assigned aircraft, a Curtiss SOC-1 Seagull floatplane, from Naval Air Station Seattle. On 16 October 1941, Barnegat proceeded south and reached the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, on 19 October 1941. There, she loaded ammunition before sailing for the United States East Coast on 22 October 1941. Barnegat called at Acapulco, Mexico, from 27 October 1941 to 29 October 1941 and then sailed for Panama, transiting the Panama Canal on 2 November 1941. After pausing briefly at Hampton Roads, Virginia, en route, she reached the Boston Navy Yard at Boston, Massachusetts, on 12 November 1941. More tests and trials kept Barnegat busy in the local operating area into the early spring of 1942. By then, the United States had entered World War II as a full partner in the Allied cause.