title: USS Grackle (AM-73)
text: # USS Grackle (AM-73)
  
  USS Grackle (AM-73) was a minesweeper in the service of the United States Navy during World War II.
  
  Grackle was laid down on 6 June 1929 as MV Notre Dame by the Bath Iron Works Corp. of Bath, Maine, for F. J. O'Hara and Sons, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts. She was launched on 2 December 1929, delivered on 21 December 1929, and renamed Grackle on 14 August 1940. Acquired by the Navy on 16 September 1940, her conversion to a minesweeper began on 1 October 1940 at the Bethlehem Steel Co. of East Boston, Massachusetts. Grackle was commissioned on 4 February 1941, and her conversion completed on 15 March 1941.
  
  ## World War II North Atlantic operations
  
  Following shakedown out of Yorktown, Virginia, and Newport, Rhode Island, USS Grackle departed Portland, Maine on 25 September 1941 for service in Newfoundland as a unit of Minesweeper Division 25, Squadron 9 of the Atlantic Fleet. Reaching Argentia, Newfoundland on 2 October, Grackle conducted minesweeping patrols from that port until 15 January 1942, and following repairs at Boston, Massachusetts she returned to sweeping duties at Argentia until the spring of 1944.
  
  ## Post-War deactivation
  
  Grackle put in at Boston on 17 May 1944 and was decommissioned there on 25 August 1944. She was transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal on 9 September 1946 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 September 1944. Final fate unknown.
  
  