USS Weehawken ( CM - 12 ) USS " Weehawken " ( CM - 12 ) was originally SS " Estrada Polma " — a car ferry built in 1920 by William Cramp & Sons at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . It was acquired by the United States Navy on 15 June 1942 ; renamed " Weehawken " on 18 July 1942 ; converted to a minelayer by the Bethlehem Steel Co . at Hoboken , New Jersey ; designated CM - 12 ; and commissioned on 30 September 1942 , Lt . Cmdr . Ralph E . Mills , USNR , in command . World War II North Africa operations . On 6 October 1942 , USS " Weehawken " moved to Bayonne , New Jersey , and , two days later , to Tompkinsville , New York . On the 10th , she departed the latter port for the Naval Mine Depot at Yorktown , Virginia . She arrived in Yorktown the following day and began drills and exercises in the lower Chesapeake Bay . The minelayer stood out of the Chesapeake Bay on 5 November , bound for New York , and arrived at Brooklyn , New York , the following day . A week later , she put to sea with Mine Division ( MinDiv ) 50 and a convoy headed for French Morocco . The minelayer dropped anchor in Casablanca harbor on 1 December . She remained in port until the 27th when she left to lay a defensive minefield off Casablanca . " Weehawken " returned to port that evening and then repeated the procedure the following day . On New Year ' s Eve , the Luftwaffe ushered in 1943 by subjecting Casablanca and the ships assembled there to a night of intermittent air raids . Fortunately , " Weehawken " suffered no damage during those raids and during the encore performed the following evening . Between 6 and 10 January , she made a round - trip voyage to Gibraltar and back to deliver minelaying equipment . Upon her return , the warship remained at Casablanca until 20 January , when she sailed for New York . Return to Stateside . She arrived in New York with the convoy on 7 February and sailed the following day for Hampton Roads , Virginia . The ship anchored in the roadstead late on the 9th , unloaded mines at Yorktown , Virginia , on the 10th , and entered the Norfolk Navy Yard on the 11th . Following a seven - week repair period , " Weehawken " exited the shipyard on St . Patrick ' s Day 1943 and moored at the Naval Operating Base for almost a week before returning to Yorktown , Virginia , on 23 March to load mines . For the next 11 weeks , " Weehawken " conducted minelaying drills and gunnery exercises in the lower reaches of the Chesapeake Bay . Throughout that span of time , she returned to Yorktown and Norfolk frequently for liberty , provisions , repairs , and the like . Supporting the invasion of Italy . 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 . Throughout that day and most of the next , she laid defensive minefield s around the invasion beaches at Gela on the southern coast of the island . On both days , the Luftwaffe appeared and dropped their explosive greetings to the invasion force . Between 2150 and 2345 on the 11th , " Weehawken " s group underwent a series of heavy attacks ; however , the minelayer came through unscathed save for some fragments from a stick of bombs which exploded just off her starboard bow . On the 12th , she continued operations off Gela ; and , around 1740 in the afternoon , German planes returned . The ship ' s war diary recorded these as " Stuka ' s , " which indicates that they were probably Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber s . After making a great deal of noise , both the US Navy and the German Luftwaffe emerged from that altercation unharmed . Later that evening , " Weehawken " departed Sicily to return to North Africa . After stops at Bizerte , Tunisia , and Algeria , she returned to Oran on 17 July . Five days later , the minelayer shifted to Mers El Kébir where she remained until 6 September when she sailed for Bizerte . The ship stayed at the Tunisian port from 8 to 14 September and returned to Mers El Kébir on the 17th . Assignment to Pacific Theatre operations . On 20 April 1944 , USS " Weehawken " received word that MinDiv 50 had been dissolved and that she was to be assigned to the U . S . Pacific Fleet to transport cargo , mines , and equipment to Pacific bases . On the 30th , she completed the availability which she had been undergoing at Norfolk , Virginia , since the 15th and returned to Yorktown , Virginia . She loaded mines and cargo from 7 to 9 May and then cleared Hampton Roads on the 11th . The minelayer entered the Panama Canal on 20 May , reported for duty with the U . S . Pacific Fleet , and joined Service Squadron 6 . Completing her transit of the canal in the same day , she continued her voyage up the west coast to San Diego , California , where she arrived on 1 June . Four days later , " Weehawken " headed west toward Hawaii . After arriving in Pearl Harbor on 14 June , she unloaded her cargo and spent 11 days at Oahu before heading back to the west coast on 25 June . On Independence Day 1944 , the warship reached San Francisco , California , and immediately began alterations at the General Engineering & Drydock Co . located at Alameda , California . She completed the modifications — which included the removal of mine tracks from the after section of her mine deck — on 1 August . After embarking passengers and loading cargo , she departed San Francisco on 8 August and shaped a course for the South Pacific . During the last two days of August , she passed through the Solomon Islands and stopped at Florida Island and Tulagi from 31 August to 5 September to disembark passengers and unload some cargo . She made Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides on 8 September and began unloading the remainder of her cargo . She embarked another group of passengers and got underway on 10 September for Pearl Harbor . After a 12 - day voyage , she passed though the anti - submarine nets at Oahu and moored in Pearl Harbor . Central Pacific operations . She spent eight days in Hawaii before embarking upon an extended voyage to the Central Pacific during which she visited a number of islands and bases . On 1 and 2 October , she embarked passengers bound for Saipan in the recently won Mariana Islands and , on the latter date , passed Diamond Head and set course for the Central Pacific . " Weehawken " made a brief overnight stop at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands on 13 and 14 October and made Saipan on the 18th . Between 18 and 28 October , she unloaded mines , embarked passengers , and loaded cargo . From 28 October to 1 November , she steamed from Saipan to Kossol Roads — in the Palau Islands — where she embarked additional passengers and resumed her voyage . On 4 November , she sailed into the lagoon at Ulithi Atoll in the western Carolines . She spent the next two weeks at the atoll . After disembarking her passengers and riding out a typhoon , " Weehawken " departed Ulithi on the 18th bound for the Marianas . She reached Guam the next day , took on passengers , and departed again by the 21st . Two days later , the minelayer reentered Ulithi . Early in December , she made a round - trip voyage to the Palaus , returning to Ulithi on the 10th . Five days later , the warship put to sea with a convoy bound for Saipan . She arrived in Saipan on the 17th and remained there five days before returning to sea — bound via Eniwetok to Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 8 January 1945 . Four days after her arrival , " Weehawken " shifted berths to the navy yard to begin another series of alterations and repairs . On 21 February , the ship stood out of Pearl Harbor once again and headed west . It arrived in Eniwetok on 4 March and , the following day , took leave of the convoy , and departed Eniwetok for Ulithi in company with . The two warships entered the lagoon at Ulithi on the 11th , and " Weehawken " began duty as a tender for motor minesweepers . Almost a month later on 5 April , the minelayer exited the anchorage at Ulithi in convoy with , , and . The convoy passed Okinawa during the mid - morning hours of 10 April and anchored in Kerama Retto just before 1400 . " Weehawken " immediately began providing logistic support , tender , and other services to the minesweeping units operating in the 10 - day - old occupation of Okinawa . For the next three months , she remained anchored in Kerama Retto except for two occasions — 4 June and 11 June — when she left the anchorage to evade typhoons . In both cases , she resumed her duties in Kerama Retto immediately after the storm passed . Under attack by Japanese aircraft . Over that span of time , frequent air alerts called her crew to general quarters as Japanese kamikaze s attempted to drive the American Navy from Okinawa . Though her gunners frequently fired on enemy planes and witnessed their spectacular crashes into other ships , " Weehawken " continued to lead a charmed life . On 28 April , a kamikaze bore in on her ; but , at the last minute , anti - aircraft fire from a nearby destroyer persuaded him to seek easier prey . Instead , he crashed into — anchored nearby — and " Weehawken " dispatched rescue parties and medical assistance to the mortally wounded hospital evacuation transport . Three days later , she was called upon to render medical assistance again when a suicide plane smashed into minelayer . Her gunners tried unsuccessfully to bring down two other kamikazes , one which struck on 6 May and another which exploded on on 21 June . ( In the latter instance , " Weehawken " rushed fire and rescue parties to the aid of the stricken warship . ) On 7 July 1945 , " Weehawken " stood out of the Kerama Retto roadstead and anchored in Buckner Bay . There , she resumed her support duties for the minesweeping forces . Ten days later , she departed Buckner Bay with a mixed force of auxiliaries and motor minesweepers for a brief operation near Unken Ko . She returned to Buckner Bay early in the morning of 22 July and remained there , either anchored or moored near Tsuken Shima , through the end of the war and into September 1945 . Damaged by Typhoon Louise - 9 – 12 October 1945 . On 16 September , a typhoon hit the Okinawa area . Late that evening , " Weehawken " tried to get underway and to take on the crews of Coast Guard cutters moored nearby . During the operation , she collided with several of the cutters and with buoy tender ( WAGL - 289 ) . After several additional collisions with the cutters and " Woodbine " , " Weehawken " began to drag anchor toward Tsuken Shima at 2330 . At 0440 on 17 September , she struck a reef off Tsuken Shima . Fortunately , the typhoon began to subside , and she was towed out of shoal water later that day by . She suffered little damage in that scrape and resumed her duties off Tsuken Shima soon thereafter . Following three weeks of routine operations , " Weehawken " battled another typhoon . Early in the morning of 9 October , steadily increasing winds forced her to use her engines to relieve the strain on her anchor chains . Through the morning , the winds rose steadily to gale force and , by 1400 , reached . " Weehawken " fought the raging seas ; but , at 1522 , the chain to the mooring buoy snapped in two . While playing out the port anchor chain to 95 fathoms and making precautionary preparations to abandon ship , the minelayer collided with a net tender broadside to port . The two ships parted with no apparent damage , and " Weehawken " ' s crewmen continued their struggle to keep her headed into the wind and relieve the strain on the anchor chain . In spite of their efforts , she continued to drag anchor toward shoal water . At 1550 , she collided with , but again escaped without major damage . By 1600 , the winds reached ; and " Weehawken " sailed out of control — broadside to the wind — and dragged anchor . At 1700 , she ran hard aground and took on a list . She immediately flooded compartments below to return to even keel and rested firmly on the bottom . There , she remained through the night battered by wind and sea and with her crew ready to abandon ship at a moment ' s notice . The following morning , the winds began to slacken and the sea to abate . Between 10 and 12 October , the minelayer unloaded the bulk of her provisions and transferred the majority of her crew to USS " Benson " ( APA - 120 ) . On 16 October , her hull began to break in two , but a skeleton crew remained on board salvaging equipment . On the 31st , a board of inspection and survey convened in " Weehawken " to look her over and found her hull to be a complete loss . The board recommended that she be decommissioned , stripped , and destroyed . Accordingly , " Weehawken " was decommissioned on 11 December 1945 , and her name was struck from the Navy List on 3 January 1946 . Awards . USS " Weehawken " earned two battle stars during World War II .