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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

USCGC Willow (WLB 332)
ex-USCGC Willow (WAGL 332)



Call sign:
November - Romeo - Xray - Oscar

ex-USS Picket (ACM 8)
ex-USAMP General Henry Knox (MP 1)


Picket served the U.S. Army, Navy and Coast Guard
Chimo Class Auxiliary Minelayer:

  • Laid down in 1941 for the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps, Mine Planter Service as USAMP General Henry Knox (MP 1) by the Marietta Manufacturing Co., Point Pleasant, WV
  • Launched in 1942
  • Transferred to the Navy 2 January 1945 and converted to an Auxiliary Minelayer at Charleston Navy Yard
  • Commissioned USS Picket (ACM 8), 6 March 1945
  • Decommissioned 24 June 1946
  • Struck from the Naval Register 19 July 1946
  • Transferred to the Coast Guard 20 September 1947 and commissioned USCGC Willow (WAGL 332) at Charleston Naval Shipyard, SC
  • Reclassified WLB-332
  • Decommissioned 10 October 1969 and stored at the Coast Guard Training Support Center, Alameda, CA
  • Sold in 1973 to Crocker McAlister Equipment Leasing, Inc. of Kodiak, AK for use as a fish factory and renamed Royal Alaskan
  • Last seen in 1990 at Juneau, AK
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,300 t.
  • Length 188' 2"
  • Beam 37'
  • Draft 12' 6"
  • Speed 12.5 kts.
  • Complement 69
  • Armament: One 40mm gun mount, and four 20mm mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Combustion Engineering header type boilers, two 1,200shp Skinner Unaflow reciprocating engines, two shafts
    Replaced with diesel engines after becoming M/V Royal Alaskan.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    General Henry Knox 67k
    Namesake:

    Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806) was a senior general of the Continental Army and later the United States Army. He directed the artillery in the successful war for independence. He was close to George Washington, who appointed him first United States Secretary of War from 1789 to 1794
    "Henry Knox," by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Image courtesy of The Athenaeum

    		Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 15 September 2021
    ACM-8 53k c. 1944
    U.S. Navy photo from the Naval Institute Archives    		 Joe Radigan
    ACM-8 300k c. March 1946
    Entering San Francisco Bay
    From the collection of LT Bernard M. Greenwald, MC, USNR, USS Picket (ACM 8)    		 Bernard M. Greenwald
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Ralph Charles Wilson, Jr., USNR6 March 1945 - January 1946
    02LT Robert Frank Harwood, USNRJanuary 1946 - 24 June 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Picket (ACM 8)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Minelayer (ACM) Photo Index Back to the U.S. Army Mine Planter Photo Index
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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