USS Elder (AN-20)  USS "Elder" (AN-20/YN-15) was an "Aloe"-class net laying ship which was assigned to serve the U.S. Navy during World War II with her protective anti-submarine nets. "Elder" (YN-15) was launched 19 June 1941 by Marietta Manufacturing Company, Point Pleasant, West Virginia; and placed in service 12 November 1941, Lieutenant T. D. E. Martin, USNR, in charge. She was redesignated "AN-20" on 20 January 1944. Serving in the 1st Naval District "Elder" laid and tended nets at Boston, Massachusetts, until 15 March 1942, then sailed to Portland, Maine, to serve as controlling gate vessel in Hussey Sound. She was commissioned 15 December 1942, Lieutenant D. H. Morse, USNR, in command. "Elder" returned to Boston 25 June 1943, and sailed 8 August, for San Diego, California, Pearl Harbor, and Funafuti, Ellice Islands, arriving 15 November. She assembled, launched, and tended nets there, and after the capture of the Gilbert Islands, sailed to Tarawa in December for mooring and net operations off that island, Makin, and Abemama. Departing the Gilberts in February 1944 with "LCT-247" in tow for Kwajalein, she laid and cared for nets in the Marshall Islands until the end of the year. After an overhaul on the U.S. West Coast, "Elder" returned to the South Pacific Ocean to repair nets at the fleet base at Manus, arriving there 30 April 1945. The following month she got underway for Luzon, searching for and towing the disabled merchant tanker "SS McKitterick" Hills en route. She delivered the tanker to Mangarin Bay, Mindoro, then continued to Subic Bay for voyage repairs. "Elder" remained in the Philippines for the rest of the war. She laid sonar buoy moorings to protect against Japanese submarines entering Subic Bay; made a sounding survey of North Channel between Corregidor and Bataan; and in September began plotting the position of known wrecks in Manila Harbor. In October she returned to Subic Bay to remove and salvage net defense. "Elder" sailed back to Corregidor in November 1945 for a unique assignment. Until May 1946 she conducted diving operations in Caballo Bay to recover thousands of silver pesos, Philippine currency, which had been dumped in the bay to prevent its capture by the Japanese.