Adopt (AM-137)
1943-1958
A general word classification.
(AM-137: displacement 850; length 184'6"; beam 33'0"; draft 9'9"; speed 14.8 knots; complement 104; armament 1-3 inch, 4 40 millimeter, 1 depth charge projector (Hedgehog), 2 depth charge tracks; class Admirable)
Originally projected as a coastal minesweeper, AMc-114, but redesignated prior to the start of construction, Adopt (AM-137) was laid down on 8 April 1942 at Tampa, Fla., by the Tampa Shipbuilding Co., Inc.; launched on 18 October 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Elizabeth H. Hastings; and commissioned on 31 May 1943, Lt. Frank R. Edrington, DE-V(G), USNR, in command.
After conducting shakedown training off Key West, Fla., the minesweeper proceeded to the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Va., for post-shakedown availability and then began a series of minesweeping tests and exercises at Little Creek, Va., and at Solomons Island, Md. These operations occupied her into early September, when she sailed for the west coast. Adopt made a brief stop at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before transiting the Panama Canal and joining the Pacific Fleet. She reached San Diego, Calif., on 25 September.
Adopt operated out of San Diego as an escort ship through 26 May 1944. That same month, she reported for duty to the Commander Western Sea Frontier. She left the west coast on 6 June and shaped a course for Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. The ship took part in a ten-day period of antisubmarine exercises in Hawaiian waters under the auspices of Commander, Task Force 1. On 23 June, she departed Hawaii in a convoy bound for Alaska.
The minesweeper reached Adak, Alaska, on 29 June 1944. She was subsequently based at the Naval Operating Base, Kuluk Bay, Alaska. During her service in Alaskan waters, Adopt carried out tactical and gunnery drills, held minesweeping exercises, and provided convoy escort services.
In June 1945, she stood into the anchorage at Cold Harbor, Alaska. She trained Russian sailors until mid-July. On 19 July 1945, Adopt was decommissioned and transferred to the Soviet Union under the terms of Lend-Lease in Project Hula. She later served the Soviet Navy as T-552 (the "T" standing for tralshik, or minesweeper) . The U.S. Navy, meanwhile, redesignated the vessel as a minesweeper, steel-hulled, MSF-7. on 7 February 1955.
The Soviet Navy reclassified the vessel as a "dispatch vessel" on 1 September 1955, and a receiving ship, BRN-10,, on 27 February 1956. The U.S. Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1958 stated that the ship had been destroyed by the Russians by demolition and noted that an appropriate settlement had been agreed upon by the two nations. Other sources indicate that the vessel was scrapped on 28 March 1960.
Luann Parsons
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
25 April 2024
