USS Avocet (AM-19/AVP-4) was a Lapwing-class minesweeper initially acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.

There, the Avocet and HMS Wellington, carrying a British science team, fired shots across each other's bows in a dispute over the choice anchorage of the island which the Americans, arriving first, had claimed.

At about 07:45 on Sunday, 7 December 1941, Avocet's security watch reported Japanese planes bombing the seaplane hangars at the south end of Ford Island and sounded general quarters.

[2] Initially firing at torpedo planes, Avocet's gunners shifted their focus to dive bombers attacking ships in the drydock area at the beginning of the forenoon watch.

Seeing the dreadnought underway, after clearing her berth astern of the burning battleship USS Arizona, dive-bomber pilots from Kaga singled her out for destruction, 21 planes attacking her from all points of the compass.

Also during the course of the action, a sailor from the small seaplane tender USS Swan, unable to return to his own ship, had reported on board for duty, and was immediately assigned a station on a .30 in (7.62 mm) machine gun.