USS Montauk SP-392 had been built as a trawler in 1880 at Kennebunk, Maine, acquired by the U.S. Navy in Aug. 1917 and converted into a minesweeper. She served in the 6th Naval district and was used to patrol the coast. On Aug. 20, 1918 Montauk was caught in a violent gale off the northern coast of Florida and for twelve hours the twenty-four man crew fought to keep her afloat. The valiant effort to save their ship was sadly overcome by the power of mother nature, the engine became swamped and failed, soon after this the anchor parted and Montauk was dashed against the shore on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

The battered ship and exhausted crew hit the shore off Cumberland Island in the early morning hours of Aug. 21, 1918 and the crew abandoned her to her fate. All of the crew apparently got off the doomed ship, but sadly seven men were lost trying to get through the breakers, the remaining seventeen men made shore and survived.
The almost 40 year old ex-trawler broke up in the waves.