USS Anderton ( SP - 530 ) USS " Anderton " ( SP - 530 ) , originally to have been USS " Raymond J . Anderton " ( SP - 530 ) , was a patrol vessel and minesweeper that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919 . Acquisition and commissioning . " Anderton " was built in 1911 by Robert Palmer and Son , Noank , Groton , Connecticut , as the steam fishing trawler " Raymond J . Anderton " . She was purchased from her owner , T . B . Hayes , for service in World War I and delivered to the U . S . Navy on 18 June 1917 . Originally she was to have been named USS " Raymond J . Anderton " , but she was renamed USS " Anderton " on 28 July 1917 prior to commissioning as required by a United States Department of the Navy general order mandating that the names of all section patrol craft be shortened to surnames only ; during her Navy career , she referred to by both names as well as by the name " R . J . Anderton " . She was converted for naval service and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard at Boston , Massachusetts , on 18 August 1917 as USS " Anderton " ( SP - 530 ) with Boatswain Frederick L . Miller in command . World War I . Originally assigned to the 2nd Naval District in southern New England , " Anderton " was reassigned during convefrsion to Squadron 4 , Patrol Force , and ordered prepared for " distant service " , and soon after commissioning got underway for France via the Azores as a unit of the 3rd Patrol Division . Arriving in France in September 1917 , her division reinforced the 1st and 2nd Patrol Divisions , which had arrived earlier . Later shifted to the 12th Patrol Division , she operated off the French coast , initially assigned to coastal convoy escort duties . She and similar trawlers assigned to these duties were soon found to be unsuited to them , and after foundered off Ushant , France , on 4 October 1917 , they were reassigned to minesweeping duties . " Anderton " was one of the first four ships in her patrol division to have minesweeping gear installed . She departed Brest , France , on 3 December 1917 in company with three similar trawlers , and 6 December 1917 began minesweeping exercises in Quiberon Bay . On 13 February 1918 , she became the first of the ships to catch a mine in her sweep gear , and on 21 February 1918 she and cut two mines apiece . On 12 January 1918 , , while operating in a fog near Concarneau , struck a rock and began taking on water . " Anderton " arrived to render assistance and took " Bauman " under tow , but " Bauman " sank before the ships could arrive at Lorient . For the remainder World War I , " Anderton " operated out of Lorient . Besides minesweeping duty and covering the convoy routes from Penmarch to Bouy de Boeufs , " Anderton " reinforced coastal convoy escorts as required , cleared the Teignouse Channel and other important passages of mines for the passage of troopship s in the vicinity of Belle Île , and operated at night off Penmarch , using her primitive listening gear ( " sea tubes " ) to detect German submarine s . On 5 September 1918 , when a German submarine torpedo ed the transport , and " Anderton " assisted " Mount Vernon " into Brest for repairs . Postwar . In the weeks following the end of World War I on 11 November 1918 , " Anderton " continued minesweeping operations to make sure that shipping could travel safely in areas mined during the war . When that work was completed in the spring of 1919 , " Anderton " departed Brest on the morning of 27 April 1919 bound for the United States in company with other U . S . Navy trawlers , but rough weather soon forced them to return to port . As " Anderton " did so , she towed the disabled , but " Courtney " sank that evening about 25 minutes before the returning convoy sighted Ar Men light . A northwesterly gale made the sea very rough , and the remaining ships had to fight heavy seas , snow , and hail squalls before they reached Brest on the afternoon of 28 April 1919 . " Anderton " remained at Brest through the summer of 1919 . Disposal . " Anderton " was decommissioned at Brest on 8 September 1919 and put up for sale abroad . However , her prewar owners reacquired her , and she operated commercially under her original name , " Raymond J . Anderton " , until 1922 .