USS Kestrel (AMC-5), was built in 1938 as Chanco by the Salisbury Yacht Co., Salisbury, Maryland

Salisbury, Maryland

-Demographics:Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury-Ocean Pines CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Salisbury metropolitan area and the Ocean Pines micropolitan area , which had a combined population of 176,657 at the 2010 census.As of the census of 2000, there were...

. The yacht was acquired by the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 on 1 October 1940, converted to a coastal minesweeper

Coastal minesweeper

Coastal minesweeper is a term used by the United States Navy to indicate a minesweeper intended for coastal use as opposed to participating in fleet operations at sea....

, and commissioned as USS Kestrel (AMc-5) on 21 January 1941.

Service history

She was assigned to the 5th Naval District and operated on inshore patrol duty out of Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, until 11 January 1944. Sailing to Boston, Massachusetts, Kestrel performed similar duties in the 1st Naval District.

She was reclassified as Unclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary Ship IX-175 on 10 July 1944 and operated for the remainder of her service as an experimental vessel for Radiation Laboratory, M.I.T.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

.

Kestrel was placed out of service on 29 October 1945 and delivered to the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

for disposal on 5 August 1946