USS Tanager (AM-5) - World War I Atlantic Operations

World War I Atlantic Operations

After operating locally out of Boston, Massachusetts through the late summer of 1918, Tanager, in company with Western King, departed New London, Connecticut, on 26 September 1918, bound for the Azores. The minesweeper subsequently operated out of Punta Delgada on local escort duties with the Azores detachment through the fall, before pushing on toward Portugal and reaching Lisbon on the day after Christmas 1918. Later in her tour in European waters, she delivered a case of serum to Georgia (Battleship No. 15) which apparently was trying to combat an outbreak of influenza.

In the spring, Tanager was assigned to the mine-sweeping detachment established to clear the North Sea Mine Barrage between the shores of Scotland and Norway, and arrived at Kirkwall, Scotland, on 7 May 1919. The barrage – which had been laid during World War I to prevent a sortie by the German High Seas Fleet and forays by German U-boats – now prevented the resumption of the commercial shipping which had criss-crossed the North Sea before the war.

While sweeping Group 9, the third operation conducted by the mine force, Tanager suffered damage in heavy weather and was forced to put into Kirkwall for a week of repairs. Besides the hazards posed by the stormy North Sea, the mines provided their own particular brand of danger.