Condor (AMc-14) was a coastal minesweeper converted from a wooden purse seiner. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry, updated by Robert J. Cressman and dated 31 May 2022, gives her a displacement of 185 tons, a length of 85 feet 11 inches, a beam of 24 feet 9 inches, a speed of 9 knots, and an armament of two .30-caliber machine guns. She had been the New Example, built at Tacoma, Washington, in 1937. DANFS says the Navy acquired her on 28 October 1940 from the New Example Fishing Company and accepted her the same day. NavSource dates the acquisition 24 October 1940 and says she was built by the Martinolich Shipbuilding Corporation of Tacoma for the New Example Fishing Company of Terminal Island, California. DANFS says the conversion to a coastal minesweeper was done at the Martinolich Shipbuilding Company in San Diego. She was assigned to the Fourteenth Naval District on 1 March 1941 and placed in service at San Diego on 18 April 1941. Ensign Monroe H. Hubbell, USNR, was officer in charge.
Escorted by the oiler Tippecanoe (AO-21), she sailed for Hawaii on 14 May 1941. DANFS prints the destination once as Hawai and, in the next clause, as the Territory of Hawaii. She and the oiler arrived on 28 May and she began service out of Pearl Harbor.
Late in the mid watch on 7 December 1941, sweeping off the entrance channel, she spotted a suspicious object in the water and summoned the destroyer Ward (DD-139). Ward then made out a Japanese Type A midget submarine trying to enter, attacked with gunfire and depth charges, sank the boat, and reported the action to the Commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District. DANFS says the arrival of the carrier planes overtook that warning, and the fleet was surprised. Condor's own entry does not name the man who saw the object, does not give a clock time, and does not say whether Hubbell was aboard. Crossbill's DANFS entry names Ensign Russell G. McCloy, D-V(G), USNR, as Condor's executive officer and says he was certain the object was a periscope. That name and that certainty are in Crossbill's history. Condor's entry does not describe her own guns, her ammunition, or any damage to her that morning.
She was placed out of service at San Diego on 17 January 1946 and struck from the List of District Craft on 7 February 1946. DANFS transfers her to the Maritime Commission for disposal on 24 July 1946. NavSource agrees on those three dates. It then says the Van Camp Sea Food Company of San Diego acquired her in 1946 and used her as a fishing boat under the old name New Example; that Sam Zamberlin of San Pedro acquired her in 1947 and renamed her Veteran; that in 1952 she operated under the flag of El Salvador; and that her fate after that is unknown. NavSource names no officer after Hubbell. The lines for him say he was officer in charge when she was placed in service. They do not say he was still in charge on 7 December, and they do not say he was aboard.
A note on sources. The acquisition conflict is 28 October 1940 in DANFS and 24 October 1940 on NavSource. The morning follows Condor's own DANFS entry. McCloy is named only because Crossbill's entry names him. A Wikipedia article says the Coast Guard manned Condor, that the sighting was at 0350, and that she signaled Ward at 0357. DANFS does not say those three things. The photograph is Bureau of Ships 19-N-24615, from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the National Archives. The catalog dates it 1941, probably off San Diego. The hull number 14 is painted on the bow. The catalog's word is probably, and it is kept.