• Due to renovations to our vault, the majority of our collections are currently inaccessible. Access to collections may be limited until May 2024. Please contact us for more information.

US Navy USS Swallow operating records

Guide to the United States. Navy USS Swallow operating records
1931, 1935-1936

Collection number: HMC-0691.
Creator: United States. Navy.
Title: United States. Navy USS Swallow operating records.
Dates: 1931, 1935-1936.
Volume of collection: 0.02 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Collection materials are in English.
Collection summary: Routine records of Navy minesweeper wrecked on Kanaga Island in 1938.

Historical note:
The USS Swallow was a Navy minesweeper stationed at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington. In the spring of 1934, the Navy dispatched the ship, along with five other minesweepers, to begin an extensive charting expedition in the Aleutian Islands. This mission was to augment the regular operations of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey fleet in the North Pacific. This flotilla was commanded by Rear Admiral Sinclair Gannon. The commanding officer of the Swallow was Lieutenant Bern Anderson, and the executive officer was Chief Boatswain J. W. Collier. On February 19, 1938, the ship was stranded on the rocks of Kanaga Island while entering Kanaga Harbor and was declared a total loss. The Swallow’s forty officers and crew came aboard the Coast Guard cutter John C. Spencer, and were taken to Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Collection description:
The collection consists of routine ship’s operating records for the U. S. S. Swallow. The collection contains: a compass report (Nov. 2, 1931); memoranda of the ship’s organization, daily and weekly routines while in port, and daily routine while at sea (Nov. 12, 1935); ship’s orders concerning anchor watch duties, uniforms, standard engine speed, crew compartments, telephone use, and watch list while in navy yard (Nov. 12-13, Dec. 4, 1935, and Feb. 15, Nov. 9 & 12, 1936); a memorandum for all hands concerning the untidiness of crew compartments (Dec. 4, 1935); and a messing bill assigning tables to officers and crew and the times of first and second mess (Jan. 9, 1936).

Arrangement: The documents in this collection are in the order in which they were provided to the Archives.

Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.

Rights note: In general, federal government documents are not subject to copyright restrictions.

Preferred citation: United States. Navy USS Swallow operating records, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Related materials: Photographs of the wrecked ship are located in the Alan May papers, HMC-0690 within his personal journal/scrapbook for the 1938 Archaeological Expedition of the Smithsonian Institution to the Aleutian Islands.

Custodial history: The records were salvaged from the ship at Kanaga Island by Alan May.

Acquisition note: The collection was given to the Archives by Alan May in 1989.

Processing information: This collection was originally described by Jeffrey Sinnott in 2004. The finding aid was updated to current standard by Arlene Schmuland in 2011.

Comments are closed.