USS Sanderling (AM-37) - World War I Mine Clearance

World War I Mine Clearance

Commissioned after the end of World War I, Sanderling conducted exercises and performed miscellaneous towing operations out of Tompkinsville, New York, through January and February 1919. In March, she proceeded to Boston, Massachusetts, whence she sailed on 14 April for the Orkney Islands to join in the postwar sweeping operations to clear the North Sea for peacetime shipping.

On the 29th, the day she arrived at Kirkwall, the first sweeping operation in the American-laid fields began. Experimental in nature, that sweep disposed of only 221 mines and put hardly a dent in the barrage which had been stretched from Orkney to Norway to stop German submarine traffic from going into the Atlantic Ocean. The six following sweeps used different methods, improved equipment, and more ships — including Sanderling. These modified operations proved to be more productive.

During the third operation, in June, Sanderling and Heron, operating together, located a sunken U-boat. The submarine, probably U-127, fouled their sweep gear, almost stopping the two ships, and sent oil to the surface. Sweeping operations were soon resumed and continued more "routinely," if hazardously, for Sanderling until the sixth operation in August and early September. Influenza struck the mine force as it worked the eastern end of the barrage. Soon thereafter, Sanderling was damaged by an upper level countermine. Repairs, however, were effected quickly, and the ship was ready to return to sea as the final clearance sweeps were conducted.