BYMS 2043
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: 164th MSF, West Africa: 2043, 2137, 2142, 2150, 2225, 2246, 2264, 2282.
Built by: Gibbs Corp., Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
Laid down: 3 April 1942.
Launched: 12 June 1942.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 6 December 1942.
Returned to USA: 3 September 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.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Tempy. Lieut., J. S. Heptinstall, 24 June 42.
Tempy. Lieut., F. Walker, 5 Sept42.
Tempy. Lieut., J. H. Craddock (act) 14 Aug 42.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., F. Walker 9 Sept 42. (In Command)
Tempy. Lieut., J. H. Craddock, 14 Aug 42.
Tempy. Lieut. F. Foulkes 1 Sept 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Skipper Lieut., C. W. Snape (act), May 45. (In Command)
Tempy. Lieut., J. H. Craddock, 14 Aug 42.
Tempy. Lieut. (E) F. Foulkes 1 Sept 43
Skipper, D. M. Morrice 2 May 45.
Tempy. Skipper, F. G. H. Barnett, 2 May 45.
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MOVEMENTS.
6 December 1942, completed.
22 March 1943, Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
3 to 6 April, Trinadad.
3 July 1943, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
11 August 1943, Dakar, Senegal.
28 March 1944, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
25 July 1944, Takordi. (Sekondi-Takoradi) Ghana, West Africa.
6 Nov 1944, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
8 to 10 Nov 1944, Bathurst, Sierra Leone.
18 Nov, 1944, Casablanca, Morocco.
20 to 27 Nov 1944, Gibraltar.
On to UK to prepare to go to South East Asia.
3 September 1946, returned to USA.