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USS Kingfisher (AM-25)

1918 Lapwing-class minesweeper

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ11682182
Source-derived summary

USS Kingfisher (AM-25/AT-135/ATO-135) was an Lapwing-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.

Kingfisher was launched 30 March 1918 by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound, Washington; sponsored by Miss Nancy Griswold; and commissioned 27 May 1918.

Post-World War I mine clearance

Departing Bremerton, Washington, 17 June, Kingfisher steamed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she arrived on 8 August for duty as a minesweeper off Cape May, New Jersey. On 5 April 1919 she departed Boston, Massachusetts, for the North Sea, arriving at Inverness, Scotland on 20 April. Assigned to the North Sea Detachment at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, she swept up mines of the Northern Barrage until 1 October when she sailed for the United States. Steaming via France, Portugal, and the Azores, she reached New York on 19 November.

Pacific Ocean operations

Assigned to the Train Force, Pacific Fleet, Kingfisher departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, 9 August 1920 for the West Coast. Arriving San Diego, California, 3 October, she began duty as a fleet tug and minesweeper. Over the next 19 years fleet maneuvers and supply, towing, and minesweeping operations sent her to the East Coast, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Panama Canal Zone, and Hawaii. During the summers of 1933, 1934, and 1935 she supplied naval ships and bases in Alaskan waters for the Aleutian Islands Survey Expedition.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “USS Kingfisher (AM-25)” as 1918 Lapwing-class minesweeper. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kingfisher, AM-25 and Lapwing-class.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1918, 1919, 1920, 1933—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Kingfisher, AM-25 and Lapwing-class providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “USS Kingfisher (AM-25)”, the useful work is to connect “1918 Lapwing-class minesweeper” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11682182. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1933.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “USS Kingfisher (AM-25)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow USS Kingfisher (AM-25) primary sources, USS Kingfisher (AM-25) archive and Kingfisher research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from USS Kingfisher (AM-25)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.