USS Weehawken (CM-12) was originally SS Estrada Palma – a car ferry built in 1920 by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia.
It was acquired by the United States Navy on 15 June 1942; renamed Weehawken on 18 July 1942; converted to a minelayer by the Bethlehem Steel Co. at Hoboken, New Jersey; designated CM-12; and commissioned on 30 September 1942.
On New Year's Eve, the Luftwaffe ushered in 1943 by subjecting Casablanca and the ships assembled there to a night of intermittent air raids.
The ship anchored in the roadstead late on the 9th, unloaded mines at Yorktown, Virginia, on the 10th, and entered the Norfolk Navy Yard on the 11th.
Following a seven-week repair period, Weehawken exited the shipyard on St. Patrick's Day 1943 and moored at the Naval Operating Base for almost a week before returning to Yorktown, Virginia, on 23 March to load mines.
For the next 11 weeks, Weehawken conducted minelaying drills and gunnery exercises in the lower reaches of the Chesapeake Bay.
During the crossing, a German U-boat apparently attacked the convoy on 22 June, for SS Gulf Stream sank rapidly after suffering an explosion.
Between 2150 and 2345 on the 11th, Weehawken's group underwent a series of heavy attacks; however, the minelayer came through unscathed save for some fragments from a stick of bombs which exploded just off her starboard bow.
Completing her transit of the canal in the same day, she continued her voyage up the west coast to San Diego, California, where she arrived on 1 June.
She spent eight days in Hawaii before embarking upon an extended voyage to the Central Pacific during which she visited a number of islands and bases.
On 1 and 2 October, she embarked passengers bound for Saipan in the recently won Mariana Islands and, on the latter date, passed Diamond Head and set course for the Central Pacific.
From 28 October to 1 November, she steamed from Saipan to Kossol Roads – in the Palau Islands – where she embarked additional passengers and resumed her voyage.
Weehawken immediately began providing logistic support, tender, and other services to the minesweeping units operating in the 10-day-old occupation of Okinawa.
Over that span of time, frequent air alerts called her crew to general quarters as Japanese kamikazes attempted to drive the American Navy from Okinawa.
Though her gunners frequently fired on enemy planes and witnessed their spectacular crashes into other ships, Weehawken continued to lead a charmed life.
On 28 April, a kamikaze bore in on her; but, at the last minute, anti-aircraft fire from a nearby destroyer persuaded him to seek easier prey.
Instead, he crashed into Pinkney (APH-2) – anchored nearby – and Weehawken dispatched rescue parties and medical assistance to the mortally wounded hospital evacuation transport.
Ten days later, she departed Buckner Bay with a mixed force of auxiliaries and motor minesweepers for a brief operation near Unken Ko.
She returned to Buckner Bay early in the morning of 22 July and remained there, either anchored or moored near Tsuken Shima, through the end of the war and into September 1945.
Early in the morning of 9 October, steadily increasing winds forced her to use her engines to relieve the strain on her anchor chains.
The two ships parted with no apparent damage, and Weehawken's crewmen continued their struggle to keep her headed into the wind and relieve the strain on the anchor chain.