BYMS 2017
British Yard Mine Sweeper
BRITISH YARD MINE SWEEPERS
BYMS’s were built in the United States and transferred the Royal Navy under the Lend-lease Programme. “British Yard Mine Sweepers” are so called because they were built to the same design as the US Navy’s “Yard Mine Sweepers”.
Crews for the BYMS’s would sail to the United States, often on the Queen Mary, which could sail unescorted because of her greater speed, to collect their vessel. They would then have the formidable task of sailing their small vessel back across the Atlantic Ocean, often in winter.
MINE SWEEPING FLOTILLA: 154th MSF West Africa: 2010, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2025, 2149, 2244, 2261.
Built by: Bellingham Iron Works, Inc., Bellingham, Washington, USA (West Coast)
Laid down: 16 July 1941.
Launched: 14 April 1942.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 30 May 1942.
Returned to USA: 31 July 1946
SPECIFICATIONS:
Wooden hull. Length, 130 feet. Beam, 25 feet 6 inches. Depth, 12 feet I inch. Draft, 8 foot 10.5 inches. Displacement 207-215 tons.
Engine: Two 800 bhp General Motors diesel engines.
Speed: 14.6 knots. 10 knots while sweeping. (Eight knots with double Oropesa sweeps)
Range: 2,500 at ten knots.
Compliment: 3 officers and 27 men.
Armament: One 3-inch HA/LA gun and two Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns.
BYMS’s were fitted with a drum on the stern with LL (double L) cables for sweeping magnetic mines, an acustic hammer on the bow for sweeping acustic mines and Oropesa floats for sweeping tethered mines.
All YMS and BYMS were built to the same design, the only variation was in the number of exhaust stacks. Minesweepers 1 to 134 had two sacks, 135 to 480 had one stack, 466 to 479 had no stacks.
MOVEMENTS.
30 May 1942. Completed.
22 Feb 1943, Seattle, USA.
25 to 28 Feb 1943, San Francisco, USA.
26 March 1945, Cristoba, Panama Canal.
1 to 4 April 1943, Trinadad.
13 May to 15 June 1943, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
17 June 1943, Bathurst, South Africa.
21 Dec 1943, Takoradi, (Sekondi-Takoradi) Ghana.
28 Dec 1943, Lagos, Nigeria.
14 March 1944, Takoradi, (Sekondi-Takoradi) Ghana.
21 May 1944, Takoradi, (Sekondi-Takoradi) Ghana.
25 July 1944, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
2 August 1944, Gibraltar.
5 August 1944, Safi, Marrakesh, Morocco.
9 to 13 August 1944, Gibraltar.
15 Jan 1945, Inverness.
15 Jan to 3 Feb 1945, Aberdeen.
9 Feb 1945, Lowestoft.
12 to 14 Feb 1945, Newhaven.
14 Feb 1945, Portsmouth.
17 Feb 1945, Swansea.
6 April 1945, Falmouth.
3 April to 15 April 1945, Gibraltar.
21 April to 6 May 1945, Malta.
6 to 13 May 1945, Port Said, Egypt.
14 May 1945, Suez. Egypt.
19 to 23 May 1945, Aden, Yeman.
30 May to 8 June, Bombay, India.
31 July 1946, returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
B.Y.M.S. 17. Tempy. Sub-Lieut., M. A. Place 22 May 42
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., Q. H. Winch, 4 June 43 (In Command)
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., M. A. Place 22 May 42
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Lieut., Q. H. Winch, 4 June 43 (In Command)
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., R. K. Jevon, 10 Mar 45
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