USS Captivate
1942 Admirable-class minesweeper
USS Captivate (AM-156) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II and in commission from 1943 to 1945. In 1945, she was transferred to the Soviet Union and then served in the Soviet Navy as T-338.
Construction and commissioning
Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper," AMc-133, Captivate was reclassified as a "minesweeper," AM-156, on 21 February 1942. She was launched on 1 December 1942 at Portland, Oregon, by Willamette Iron and Steel Works and commissioned on 30 December 1943.
Service history
U.S. Navy, World War II, 1943-1945
Reporting to the United States Pacific Fleet for assignment, Captivate stood out of San Francisco, California, on 11 March 1944 bound for Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, and Majuro in the Marshall Islands. Arriving at Majuro on 10 April 1944, she operated as harbor entrance patrol and pilot vessel, occasionally escorting convoys to the other islands of the Marshalls group. Leaving Majuro on 22 September 1944, she moved to the Mariana Islands, where she escorted convoys and patrolled off Tinian until 14 October 1944. Arriving in the newly captured Palau Islands on 23 October 1944, Captivate performed patrol and escort duties there until 3 February 1945, when she moved to Eniwetok to perform similar duties through the remainder of February 1945.
Arriving at Portland, Oregon, on 27 March 1945, Captivate moved to Seattle, Washington, where she aided in training programs until 6 July 1945. Selected for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan – Captivate proceeded to Cold Bay to begin familiarization training of her new Soviet crew.
“USS Captivate” enters the record as 1942 Admirable-class minesweeper. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Captivate, Admirable-class and minesweeper can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“USS Captivate” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Captivate, Admirable-class and minesweeper provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7868072. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1945, 1942 and 1944.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “USS Captivate”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow USS Captivate primary sources, USS Captivate archive and Captivate research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “USS Captivate”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “USS Captivate” 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.