USS ''Bunting'' (AMc-7) was a coastal

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. She was named after the

bunting Bunting may refer to: Animals Birds * Bunting (bird) or Emberizidae, a family of Eurasian and African passerine birds * New World buntings or ''Passerina'', a genus of American passerine birds in the family Cardinalidae * Blue bunting, a species ...

, a seed-eating bird intermediate in size between

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus ''Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...

s and

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

es.

Acquisition and modification

SS ''Vagabond'', a wooden-hulled

purse seiner A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...

built in 1935 at

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, by the Martinac Shipbuilding Co., was acquired by the Navy from Marko Bokich, et al., on 22 October 1940. She was designated AMc-7 shortly thereafter; renamed USS ''Bunting'' on 6 November 1940; converted to a coastal minesweeper by the Campbell Machine Company at

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, California. She was placed in service at the Destroyer Base, San Diego, on 6 June 1941.

Assigned to San Francisco Bay duties

Assigned to the 12th Naval District, ''Bunting'' reported to her assigned base at the Section Headquarters,

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure n ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, on 19 June and spent the remainder of the year 1941 and the first five months of 1942 engaged in training officers, minesweeping, patrolling

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, California, San Jose, and Oakland, Ca ...

, and participating in local Army and Navy exercises.

Collision and sinking

While patrolling from

Line Mile Rock Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Art ...

Point Diablo Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

, ''Bunting'' collided with the patrol craft on 3 June 1942 and sank. Her name was struck from the

Navy List A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...

on 24 June 1942.

References

External links

*
Casualties, Navy and Coast Guard Ships, WW II

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunting (AMc-7) Minesweepers of the United States Navy Ships built in Tacoma, Washington 1935 ships World War II minesweepers of the United States World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Shipwrecks of the California coast Ships sunk in collisions Maritime incidents in June 1942