 For 2 years the ship swept shipping channels that extended fingerlike from Manhattan to open water, permitting unprecedented amounts of war material to be shipped to the European theater to support the Allied war effort.Transferred to the 5th Naval District 18 December 1943, "Limpkin" shifted homeport to Norfolk, Virginia.For the rest of the war, she operated at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, protecting the approaches to that vital center of Allied naval power.