Accentor I (AMc-36)
1941-1946
A bird of the genus Pruella, most notably the hedge sparrow.
I
(AMc-36: displacement 221; length 97'6"; beam 22'6"; draft 8'11"; speed 10.0 knots; complement 17; armament 2 .50-caliber machine guns; class Accentor)
The first Accentor (AMc-36) was laid down on 21 January 1941 at Ipswich, Mass., by W. A. Robinson, Inc. ; launched on 10 May 1941; sponsored by Mrs. W. A. Robinson; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 24 July 1941, Lt. (j.g.) Gordon Abbott, D-V(S), USNR, in command.
Following outfitting there and shakedown training in nearby waters and off the Virginia capes, the coastal minesweeper arrived at Portland, Maine, on 26 September 1941 and reported to the commanding officer of Mine Division 26 for duty in the inshore patrol. That same day, the Navy ordered its ships to protect all vessels engaged in commerce in U.S. defensive waters, by patrolling, covering, and escorting, and by reporting or destroying German or Italian naval forces encountered. That followed in the wake of the U.S. Navy's escorting an east-bound British transatlantic convoy [HX 150] for the first time, and the turnover to British escorts the previous day [25 September].
For almost one year, but for a month of availability at the Boston [Mass.] Navy Yard from 18 March to 17 April 1942, she performed her duties of streaming and sweeping for mines. In mid-August 1942, orders arrived directing Accentor to proceed via Boston to Annapolis, Md., for minesweeping tests in the Chesapeake Bay. She departed Portland, Maine, on the 22nd and reached the U.S. Naval Academy six days later.
Decommissioned on 1 September 1942, Accentor was placed in service simultaneously. She then spent the remainder of her naval career operating in the Chesapeake Bay region, for the most part under the auspices of the Naval Mine Warfare Proving Ground, Solomons Island, Maryland.
After World War II ended and most postwar minesweeping tasks had been completed, Accentor was placed out of service on 14 June 1946 and, a week later, declared surplus to the Navy needs.
Stricken from the Navy Register on 3 July 1946, Accentor was transferred early in October 1946 to the Maritime Commission for disposal and sold to Higgins, Inc., of New Orleans, La. Delivered to that company at Lake Charles, La., on 9 October 1946, she served as a tugboat for that firm until purchased by the Star Towing Co., of New Orleans, La., in 1954.
Ultimately, Accentor foundered on the Mississippi River, at Mile 99, near Star Landing, Mississippi, on 12 June 1966.
Luann Parsons
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
25 August 2022
