MOVEMENTS.
13 March 1943, Completed.
12 May 1943, New York, USA.
20 to 22 May1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
3 June 1943, St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada.
4 to 6 June 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
18 June to 7 July 1943. Portsmouth.
8 July 1943, Falmouth.
15 July 1943, Gibraltar.
8 to 20 Aug. 1943, Bizerte, Tunisia.
17 and 18 Dec 1943, Augusta, Sicily.
10 April to 1 May 1944, Brindisi, Italy.
11 to 14 May 1944, Taranto, Italy.
15 May 1944, Messina, Sicily.
27 July 1944, Malta.
26 Oct 1944, Augusta, Sicily.
27 Oct to 1 Nov 1944, Malta.
18 Nov 1944, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
6 Dec 1944, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
16 Dec 1944, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
16 Feb 1945, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
13 March to 14 April 1945, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
10 and 11 May 1945, Trieste,
17 May to 22 May 1945, Trieste.
24 May 1945, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
28 May to 5 June 1945, Venice, Italy.
5 to 26 June 1945, Trieste.
28 August 1945, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
10 July 1947, Returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943
Tempy. Lieut., R. Cox, Nov 42.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Skipper Lieut., W. Masson (act), Aug 43 (In Command)
Skipper, G. E. Mason, Aug 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Not on Navy List.
If you, your father or your grandfather have any additional information about this ship, crew lists, stories, photographs, please send copies of them to be added to our records and this website.
Thank you.
Contact: johntenthousand@yahoo.co.uk
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BYMS 2031
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: 156th MSF, Mediterranean : 2031, 2056, 2068, 2072, 2073, 2187, 2190, 2209.
Built by: American Car and Foundry Co., Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
Laid down: 11 May 1942.
Launched: 7 September 1942
Handed over to Royal Navy: 13 March 1943
Returned to USA: 10 July 1947 and sold to Anthonio Theuma, Malta. Re-named Nanridi.
Seized for tobacco smuggling at Palermo, Sicily.
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.
BYMS 2031 with her original number.