The first USS Pigeon (AM-47/ASR-6) was a Lapwing-class minesweeper of the United States Navy. She was later converted to a submarine rescue ship. She was named for the avian ambassador, the pigeon.
Construction and commissioning
Pigeon was laid down by the Baltimore Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company at Baltimore, Maryland. She was launched on 29 January 1919, sponsored by Mrs. Joseph B. Provance, and was commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 July 1919. When the U.S. Navy assigned hull classification symbols to ships on 17 July 1920, Pigeon was designated AM-47.
Service history
Inter-war period
Pigeon departed Norfolk to serve the Pacific Mine Force at Naval Station San Diego in San Diego, California, transited the Panama Canal on 7 December 1919, and reached San Diego on 25 December 1919. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, became her new base of operations on 18 June 1920, and she decommissioned there on 25 April 1922. Converted to a gunboat, she recommissioned at Pearl Harbor on 13 October 1923.
Still classified a minesweeper, Pigeon departed Pearl Harbor on 7 November 1923 and joined the Yangtze River Patrol Force at Shanghai, China, on 26 November 1923. For five years, she served in the patrol, protecting American citizens and commerce during the Chinese Civil War. She began serving Submarine Division 16 (SubDiv 16) in the United States Asiatic Fleet in September 1928. After ranging from the Philippines to the China coast, she fitted out as a “submarine salvage vessel” at the Cavite Naval Station on Luzon in the Philippines from April to July 1929. She departed Manila Bay on 13 July 1929 to cruise with Asiatic Fleet submarines along the China coast until returning to Manila on 11 September 1929. The following day, she was reclassified a submarine rescue vessel and redesignated ASR-6.
As a submarine rescue vessel, Pigeons primary mission was to aid and salvage submarines in distress. She had a complement of divers and was equipped with deep-sea diving equipment. She had a McCann Rescue Chamber for rescuing men from sunken submarines. Pigeon also had a helium-mixing tank for aiding divers in making deep dives. Her recompression chamber was a complete “divers hospital” to prevent decompression sickness — the "bends" — in divers subjected to sudden ascents from deep depths.
The French Navy submarine failed to resurface after a mock attack on the light cruiser during training maneuvers in the South China Sea off Cam Ranh, French Indochina, on 15 June 1939, and after her wreck was located northeast of the island of Hon Chut on 16 June 1939 with its stern resting on the seabed at a depth of and its bow floating at a depth of , Pigeon was dispatched to render assistance. French salvage efforts to place a chain around Phénix′s hull so that it could be towed into shallower water succeeded only in dragging her into waters with a depth of and, although Pigeon arrived on the scene on 28 June 1939, Phénix still lay too deep for Pigeon′s divers to reach her. Phénix was lost with all hands.
Pigeon ran aground on the coast of China during a typhoon on 2 September 1939, but was salvaged. She continued duty with the Submarine Force of the Asiatic Fleet in waters ranging from the Philippines to the coast of China. She departed Shanghai, China, for Manila in the Philippines on 19 August 1940, arriving on 24 August 1940, and remained in the Philippines as the Japanese gained control of the coastal ports of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
World War II
1941
In November 1941, the 4th Marines evacuated Shanghai and ships of the Yangtze River Patrol were withdrawn from China. Pigeon was one of the ships ordered to escort the American gunboats from Chinese waters. She departed Cavite for Formosa Straits 28–29 November 1941.
Pigeon rendezvoused near midnight of 30 November-1 December 1941 with the gunboats and (flagship) and minesweeper . A Japanese seaplane circled the formation on the morning of 1 December 1941. For about eight hours, beginning at noon, seven Japanese warships encircled the American gunboats. One transport—loaded with troops (apparently bound for the Malayan expedition)—held gunnery exercises on the gunboat formation. The episode ended about 19:00 when a Japanese transport hoisted an International signal translated: "Enemy escaping on course 180." On 4 December, Pigeon sighted Corregidor Light and the convoy entered Manila Bay.