Breaker III (Trawler)
III
The third Breaker (Id. No. 1707), a steam trawler constructed in 1912 at Quincy, Mass., by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., was chartered by the Navy on 13 June 1918 from the Bay State Fishing Co. and was placed in commission (probably at Boston, Mass) on 29 July 1918. Converted to a minesweeper, Breaker was assigned to the 1st Naval District. She spent her entire period of service during World War I patrolling from her base at Portland, Maine. Her primary duty was to seek out and sweep or destroy mines dropped in American coastal waters by U-boats or German surface raiders. She continued to serve briefly following the end of hostilities on 11 November 1918. Decommissioned early in January 1919, she was returned to her owner on 2 April 1919, and her name was struck from the Navy list, presumably on that same day.
Raymond A. Mann
13 December 2005
