USS Quail (AM-15)

USS Quail (AM-15) was an Lapwing-class minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Quail.

History
United States
Name: USS Quail
Builder: Chester Shipbuilding Co., Chester, Pennsylvania
Laid down: 14 May 1918
Launched: 6 October 1918
Commissioned: 29 April 1919, as Minesweeper No.15
Reclassified: AM-15, 17 July 1920
Stricken: 8 May 1942
Honours and
awards:		 1 battle star (World War II)
Fate: Scuttled to prevent capture, 5 May 1942
General characteristics
Class and type: Lapwing-class minesweeper
Displacement: 840 long tons (853 t)
Length: 187 ft 10 in (57.25 m)
Beam: 35 ft 6 in (10.82 m)
Draft: 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m)
Speed: 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement: 61
Armament: 2 × 3 in (76 mm) guns

Quail was named after the quail, a migratory game bird.

Quail was laid down 14 May 1918 by the Chester Shipbuilding Co., Chester, Pennsylvania; launched 6 October 1918; and commissioned 29 April 1919.

Post-World War I operations
Quail alongside Coast Battleship No. 4 (ex. USS Iowa) off Panama, early 1923. A Pennsylvania-class battleship is in the background.

Quail steamed to Kirkwall, Scotland, to join the North Sea Mine Sweeping Detachment. She operated with this force clearing the North Sea of mines until 25 November 1919. She operated with the Atlantic Fleet in Cuban waters during early 1920, and then along the U.S. East Coast. In September 1922 she was attached to the submarine base at Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, operating in the Caribbean.

Quail made a cruise to the east coast in late 1923, and in 1925 she was at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for repairs. In 1927 she spent time patrolling the west coast of Nicaragua, and later joined the fleet in the Caribbean for maneuvers. From July 1928 to January 1929, she was on the east coast, operating between Virginia and Massachusetts. She returned to Coco Solo in 1929. Following duty with the control force in the Panama Canal area from 1929 to 1931, Quail operated out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from 1931 to 1941, including in her duties a period of survey work off Alaska. On 25 July 1940 the Quail landed a force to construct a naval air station on Palmyra Atoll.

World War II Pacific operations

At the outbreak of war with Japan, the USS Quail was in the Philippines. During the defense of Corregidor in the Battle of Corregidor (1942), Lieutenant Thomas James Eugene “Jimmy” Crotty, Coast Guard Academy Class of 1934, served as the executive officer of the Quail. She shot down enemy aircraft and swept mine fields to keep open a channel providing access to the South Harbor at Corregidor. This enabled U.S. submarines to safely pass and surface at night, delivering goods and removing critical personnel from Corregidor. After the Quail was gutted of arms, her crew then went ashore to aid in the defense of the island and Crotty commanded a force of Marines and Army personnel manning 75mm beach guns firing down on enemy forces landing on Corregidor's beaches.

Damaged by enemy bombs and guns, Quail was scuttled on 5 May 1942 by U.S. forces to prevent her capture. Part of her crew, Lt Cmdr. John H. Morrill and 17 others, escaped to Darwin, Australia, in a 36-foot motor launch. The rest of the crew became prisoners of war of Imperial Japan. A number were sent to Japan to become slave laborers for Japanese companies. Chief Petty Officer Virgil Byrd, sick with wet beriberi and the beginnings of congestive heart failure, was beaten to death on 11 May 1943 at the POW Camp #3D Yodogawa in Osaka, Japan, for selling an extra pair of shoes to a Japanese workman.  Byrd was beaten unconcious, revived, and beaten again three times, and died that evening. The POW Camp supplied Allied POW slave labor to Yodogawa Steel Works, Ltd.

With Corregidor's capitulation on 6 May 1942, Crotty became the first Coast Guard prisoner of war since the War of 1812, when the British had captured U.S. Revenue Cutter Service cuttermen. He was one of the hundreds of men forced on to the Bataan “Death March”, finally making it to the prison compound at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. He died of diphtheria in July 1942 in the Cabanatuan POW Camp.[1]

Awards

Quail received one battle star for World War II service.

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References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

  1. Braesch, Connie (4 January 2010). "History - LT Thomas James Eugene Crotty: A Coast Guard Leader, Hero and Prisoner of War". Coast Guard Compass. Retrieved 26 April 2019. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

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