Bunting I (AMc-7)
1941-1942
A seed eating bird intermediate in size between starlings and finches.
I
(AMc-7: tonnage 115; length between perpendiculars 79'3"; beam 21'6"; depth of hold 9'6"; speed 8.5 knots; complement 16; armament 2 .30 caliber machine guns)
Vagabond--a wooden-hulled purse seiner built in 1935 at Tacoma, Wash., by the Martinac Shipbuilding Co.--was acquired by the Navy from Marko Bokich, et al, on 22 October 1940; designated AMc-7 shortly thereafter; renamed Bunting on 6 November 1940; converted to a coastal minesweeper by the Campbell Machine Co. at San Diego, Calif.; and placed in service at the Destroyer Base, San Diego, on 6 June 1941, Ens. Paul H. McBride, D-M, USNR, in command.
Assigned to the Twelfth Naval District, Bunting reported to her assigned base at the Section Headquarters, Treasure Island, San Francisco, Calif., on 19 June 1941 and spent the remainder of the year 1941 and the first five months of 1942 engaged in training officers, minesweeping, patrolling San Francisco Bay, and participating in local Army Navy exercises.
While patrolling from Line Mile Rock to Point Diablo, Bunting collided with the patrol craft PC-569 on 3 June 1942 and sank. Her name was stricken from the Naval Register on 24 June 1942.
Robert J. Cressman
Updated, 4 August 2022
