On 19 February 1942, a German submarine torpedoed and sank , the first American ship lost to enemy action in the waters of the Gulf Sea Frontier. In the summer of 1942, as German submarines took their grim toll of merchant shipping, "Turaco" pursued her duties. German submarines laid minefields which were discovered by patrolling American vessels - often enough, only after American ships had been damaged or lost. The small coastal minesweepers joined the larger sweepers (AM's) in clearing these fields on the Eastern Sea Frontier and Gulf Sea Frontier.