USS Anderton (SP-530) - World War I

World War I

Originally assigned to the 2nd Naval District in southern New England, Anderton was reassigned during convefrsion to Squadron 4, Patrol Force, and ordered prepared for "distant service", and soon after commissioning got underway for France via the Azores 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 coastal convoy escort duties. She and similar trawlers assigned to these duties were soon found to be unsuited to them, and after USS Rehoboth (SP-384) foundered off Ushant, France, on 4 October 1917, they were reassigned to minesweeping duties.

Anderton was one of the first four ships in her patrol division to have minesweeping gear installed. She departed Brest, France, on 3 December 1917 in company with three similar trawlers, and 6 December 1917 began minesweeping exercises in Quiberon Bay. On 13 February 1918, she became the first of the ships to catch a mine in her sweep gear, and on 21 February 1918 she and USS McNeal (SP-333) cut two mines apiece.

On 12 January 1918, USS Bauman (SP-377), while operating in a fog near Concarneau, struck a rock and began taking on water. Anderton arrived to render assistance and took Bauman under tow, but Bauman sank before the ships could arrive at Lorient.

For the remainder World War I, Anderton operated out of Lorient. Besides minesweeping duty and covering the convoy routes from Penmarch to Bouy de Boeufs, Anderton reinforced coastal convoy escorts as required, cleared the Teignouse Channel and other important passages of mines for the passage of troopships in the vicinity of Belle Île, and operated at night off Penmarch, using her primitive listening gear ("sea tubes") to detect German submarines. On 5 September 1918, when a German submarine torpedoed the transport USS Mount Vernon (ID-4508), USS Barnegat (SP-1232) and Anderton assisted Mount Vernon into Brest for repairs.