USS Barbican (ACM-5)

USS Barbican (ACM-5) was a Chimo-class minelayer in the United States Navy.

Barbican was constructed as the Army Mine planter USAMP Col. George Armistead (MP-3) by the Marietta Manufacturing Co. at Point Pleasant, West Virginia and delivered to the U.S. Army in December 1942. The ship was acquired by the U.S. Navy from the Army Coast Artillery at Charleston, South Carolina, on 6 January 1945; renamed Barbican and designated an auxiliary minelayer, ACM-5, on 19 January 1945; converted for naval service by the Charleston Navy Yard; and placed in commission there on 24 March 1945, Lt. Comdr. Alexander Anderson, Jr., in command.

U.S. Navy
Following shakedown training out of Charleston, South Carolina, between 31 March and 24 April, Barbican arrived in the Pacific late in the summer of 1945 too late to participate in the war against Japan. In fact, Barbican did not depart Pearl Harbor and head for the western Pacific until 17 August, two days after the Japanese capitulation ended hostilities. On her way west, the auxiliary minelayer made one stop at Midway Island before arriving at Saipan in the Marianas on 20 September.

There, she reported for duty with the Commander, Minecraft, Pacific Fleet. For a little more than a month, she served as tender and flagship for a squadron of motor minesweepers (YMS), performing those duties both at Saipan and at Okinawa. Late in October, the ship moved from Okinawa to Sasebo, where she took part in the postwar occupation of Japan. That assignment lasted until 24 February 1946, when she headed back to the United States reporting to the Commandant, 12th Naval District, late in April 1946 for duty pending inactivation. Barbican was placed out of commission at San Francisco, on 12 June 1946 and was transferred simultaneously to the U.S. Coast Guard. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 19 July 1946.

U.S. Coast Guard
The ship entered service with the Coast Guard in 1947 as the fourth tender named Ivy (WLB / WAGL-329) and stationed at Miami, Florida tending aids to navigation and assisting in search and rescue or law enforcement when needed. On 29 June 1951 Ivy transferred to Portland, Oregon for the remainder of her Coast Guard service. Ivy decommissioned on 26 November 1969. The vessel was then acquired by Foss Maritime and renamed as the Agnes Foss, the second ex Army mine planter of the name Col. George Armistead to be operated by Foss as Agnes Foss.