From: Dictionary of American Fighting Ships

A small American tree having two seeded winged fruits which have been used in place of hops.

(AN - 62: dp. 1,100; l. 194'6"; b. 37'; dr. 13'6"; s. 12 k.; cpl. 56; a. 1 3"; cl. Ailanthus)

Hoptree (AN-62), a wooden-hulled net layer, was launched 14 October 1943 by Snow Shipyards Inc., Rockland, Maine, as YN-83; sponsored by Lt. Ann Jameson; reclassified AN-62, 20 January 1944; and commissioned 18 May 1944, Lt. M. T. Birkle in command.

Arriving Melville Net Depot for shakedown 31 May, Hoptree performed training and readiness operations until 27 June, when she joined the net layer precommissioning and training group at Melville. She then departed 2 December for the West Coast and sailed 3 February 1945 from Naval Net Depot, Tiburon, Calif., for duty in the Pacific.

Hoptree arrived Pearl Harbor 13 February and was routed on to Eniwetok Atoll, where she arrived the 28th. From March through the end of the war the ship was engaged in the vital work of maintaining and repairing net defenses in the harbor, and after August she was occupied in dismantling them. She sailed back to the United States in November 1945, arriving San Francisco 8 November, and decommissioned 1 March 1946. The ship was sold to Van Camp Sea Food Co., San Pedro, Calif., 23 April 1947.

Transcribed by Yves HUBERT (hubertypc@aol.com)