The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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Mare Island Navy Yard #2109-3-43. Via Navsource.org
Degaussers were yard craft that employed a
high-current electrical cable to "wipe" the magnetic field of steel-hulled ships. This gave the
ships some temporary immunity to magnetic mines.
Since the Japanese never developed a
magnetic mine of their own, and employed only a small number of
captured British magnetic
mines, only a small number of these craft were deployed by the U.S. Navy to the Pacific,
most likely to protect shipping from friendly mines laid offensively
earlier in the war that had not been completely swept.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2009, 2011 by Kent G. Budge. Index
