on 29 January 1933. Based at Newport, Rhode Island, she served with the Scouting Force in local operations and exercises. In 1938 an activated-tank stabilization system designed by Nicolas Minorsky was tested in Hamilton but exhibited control stability problems. The outbreak of World War II in Europe in late 1939 interrupted further development as Hamilton was called to active duty. Hamilton joined other members of her class on the Grand Banks Patrol, which sent American ships as far north as Iceland and Greenland to protect their own and neutral shipping. Hamilton continued this duty until converted to a fast minesweeper in June 1941. Reclassified DMS-18 on 17 October 1941, she resumed patrol duty along the East Coast and into the North Atlantic. World War II When the United States was catapulted into the war on 7 December 1941, Hamiltons pace accelerated greatly. Wartime duties now took Hamilton on coastal convoys from New York through German U-boat-infested waters as far south as the Panama Canal Zone. The Caribbean Sea and the waters off Cape Hatteras were particularly rich ground for U-boats, and Hamilton more than once attacked U-boats sighted on the surface or detected by sound contacts. On 9 June 1942 Hamilton rescued 39 survivors of , torpedoed just north of Bermuda. The shifting tide of war drew Hamilton from the coastal convoy route in the fall of 1942 as she became part of "Operation Torch," the Allied invasion of North Africa. Hamilton sailed for North Africa on 24 October with Rear Admiral H. K. Hewitt's Task Force 34, a part of the Allied amphibious thrust. Two weeks later, she cruised off the Moroccan coast providing antisubmarine (ASW) protection and fire support for the first waves of invasion barges as the Allies landed at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers on 8 November 1942. Hamilton remained along the North African shore on minesweeping and escort duty out of Casablanca until December when she sailed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard, arriving 26 December. The following year saw Hamilton engaged primarily in coastal convoy duty, guiding and protecting merchantmen as they threaded their perilous way through German submarine packs from Iceland to the Caribbean. Departing Norfolk on 3 December 1943, Hamilton transited the Panama Canal five days later and reached San Diego on 16 December. From San Diego she steamed to Pearl Harbor and, after a brief training period, sailed for Kwajalein Atoll, a key