USS Boxwood ( AN - 8 ) USS " Boxwood " ( YN - 3 / AN - 8 ) was an " Aloe " - class net laying ship which was assigned to serve U . S . Navy ships and harbors during World War II with her protective anti - submarine nets . Career . " Boxwood " ( YN - 3 ) — originally named " Birch " but renamed before her construction began — was laid down on 19 November 1940 at Houghton , Washington , by the Lake Washington Shipyard ; launched on 8 March 1941 ; and placed in service on 25 July 1941 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard , Bremerton , Washington , Lt . Robert W . Nordstrom , USNR , in charge . Assigned to duty with the Inshore Patrol , 13th Naval District , the net tender reported to the section headquarters at Seattle , Washington , on 6 August and commenced operating between that port , Port Townsend , and Port Angeles , performing various towing tasks within the district . On typical chore was her towing of targets for the gunboat during September and October 1941 . The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 prompted a flurry of defensive activity along the U . S . West Coast . The plans for the net defense of the Puget Sound area having been worked out in advance , " Boxwood " joined and in installing the Rich Pass antisubmarine net line in Puget Sound , commencing the work soon after 7 December and bringing it to completion on 27 January 1942 . Over the ensuing weeks , " Boxwood " remained on station in the Rich Pass area , maintaining the net line and occasionally conducting local patrol work . On 16 February , " Boxwood " sailed for Indian Island , Washington , and was soon busily engaged in work at the Net Depot there , installing an antisubmarine net line at Port Townsend , a combination antisubmarine and anti - torpedo net line at Marrowstone Spit , and a fine mesh net line across the Portage Canal . She completed the installation of approximately a mile and a half of netting on 11 July and remained in the Puget Sound area tending nets for the remainder of 1942 . Placed in full commission on 2 January 1943 , " Boxwood " resumed her tending tasks after her overhaul at Todd , Seattle , shipyard and carried them out through the spring of 1943 . Alaskan duty . Departing the Seattle area on 26 June 1943 , " Boxwood " relieved at Adak , in the Aleutians , and assisted in the installation of antitorpedo net lines at Adak and Sand Bay , and helped in laying fleet mooring buoys . After tending nets in the Adak area during the invasion of Kiska , " Boxwood " proceeded to Kiska as a replacement for a destroyer operating off that island and thus gained the distinction of being the first net tender in that area . Soon after " Boxwood ' s " arrival , " Buckeye " joined her ; and the two ships installed cruiser moorings in Kiska harbor , as well as approximately two miles of a combination anti - torpedo and submarine - indicator net . Resuming her duties at Adak in October 1943 , " Boxwood " later received minor damage while assisting the grounded destroyer in Kulak Bay . During her operations in these northern climes , " Boxwood " was redesignated " AN - 8 " on 20 January 1944 . Ordered to Kiska on 15 February 1944 , " Boxwood " proceeded thence and repaired some of the cruiser moorings that she had laid there earlier . Completing this task by 27 February , the net tender sailed to Attu , where she tended net defenses until relieved by on 26 September . Upon completion of repairs and alterations at Adak on 31 October , " Boxwood " resumed tending the net defenses there early in November 1944 . Subsequently ordered to Attu on 10 January 1945 , " Boxwood " arrived on station two days later and relieved " Buckthorn " . Relieved by that ship on 22 June 1945 to return to Adak for overhaul , " Boxwood " was still undergoing repairs and alterations when Japan capitulated in mid - August 1945 . Upon completion of the overhaul on 20 August 1945 , " Boxwood " resumed her net tending tasks , only to receive orders to begin removing the net defenses at Adak on the 21st . Assisted by " Buckthorn " and , " Boxwood " finished this work by 14 September . Boxwood sailed for Kodiak , Alaska , on 6 October and served there until 28 November when she was ordered to Dutch Harbor . Attached to the naval operating base there , " Boxwood " performed utility jobs such as transporting mail and stores to nearby island bases and decommissioned the radio station at Caton Island , Alaska . During 1946 , " Boxwood " made several trips carrying passengers and mail between various bases in the Alaskan Sea Frontier and the naval station at Seattle , Washington , through mid - August 1946 when she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . In the fall of 1946 , " Boxwood " underwent a preinactivation overhaul at the Kaiser Shipyard , Vancouver , Washington . She was decommissioned on 13 November 1946 and was turned over to the Portland , Oregon , Sub - group of the 19th Fleet and moored at Swan Island , Portland , Oregon . She remained inactive until her name was struck from the Navy List on 9 October 1962 . Shifted to the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay , California , the ship was carried on vessel inventory reports through the end of 1974 . Subsequent fate not known .