BYMS 2060
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: 166th MSF, Eastern Fleet 1943: 2060, 2162, 2168, 2181, 2203, 2204, 2232 2236.
Built by: Westergard Boat Works, Inc., Biloxi, Mississippi, USA.
Laid down: 19 May 1942.
Launched: 20 February 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 14 September 1943.
Returned to USA: 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.
MOVEMENTS.
14 September 1943, completed.
12 Nov 1943, Charleston, South Carolina, United States.
15 Nov to 22 Dec 1943, Bermuda.
25 Nov 1943, Horta, Azores.
19 Dec 1943, Algiers, Algeria.
21 Dec 1943, Malta.
9 Jan 1944, Malta.
13 to 17 Jan 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
17 Jan to 2 March, 1944, Port Said, Egypt.
5 to 21 March 1944, Aden, Yemen.
1 April 1944, Bombay, India.
4 April 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (today Sri Lanka )
8 August, Calcutta, India.
10 August 1944, Visagapatam, India. (today Visakhapatnam)
8 Dec 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (today Sri Lanka )
September 1946, returned to USA.
BYMS 2060
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., R. W. Orr, 15 Sept 43. (In Command)
Tempy. Lieut.,K. J. Brown, 15, Sept 43.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., R. Conde, 15 Sept 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., R. Conde 15 Sept 43.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., A. C. Eastaugh 21 Feb 45.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., (E) A. E. Ellis, 12 Nov 44.
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