On 9 June, the minelayer weighed anchor and departed Yorktown, Virginia, and headed for New York. There, she joined a convoy bound for Algeria. During the crossing, a German U-boat apparently attacked the convoy on 22 June, for sank rapidly after suffering an explosion. However, "Weehawken" arrived in Oran safely on U.S. Independence Day 1943. Two days later, she joined a convoy off Oran and set a course for Sicily where she arrived on the 11th, the day following the initial Allied invasion.