BYMS 2066 after being transferred to Greece and re-named Paralos.
MOVEMENTS.
8 February 1943, completed.
15 April 1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
17 April to 3 May 1943, St John’s Newfoundland, Canada.
11 May 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
23 May to 24 July, Humber.
28 July Portsmouth.
7 to 10 Aug 1943, Gibraltar.
20 Aug 1943, Tripoli, Libya.
1 Sep 1943, Alaxandria, Egypt.
2 March 1944 Alaxandria, Egypt.
4 March to 30 May 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
31 May to 11 July 1944, Bizerte, Tunisia.
1 to 18 July 1944, Bizerte, Tunisia.
20 July to 12 Aug 1944, Naples, Italy.
5 Sep 1944, Naples, Italy.
6 Sep to 9 Oct 1944, Malta.
21 to 25 Nov 1944, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
28 Nov to 5 Dec 1944, Malta.
5 to 25 Jan 1945, Naples, Italy.
16 to 25 March 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
25 July 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
4 Sep 1945, Poros, Greek Island.
12 to 14 Sep 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
16 and 17 Sep 1945, Nararino, Greece.
17 and 18 Sep 1945, Katakolo, Pírgos, Western Greece.
18 and 19 Sep 1945, Ithaca, Greece, (Greek Island.)
19 Sep 1945, Preveza, Greece.
12 August 1944, returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Tempy. Lieut., G. Dodds, 1 July 42.
Tempy. Lieut., H. McDiarmid, 24 July 42.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., F. B. Hargrave, Nov 42 .R.N.Z.N.V.R.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
No officers listed on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
No officers listed on Navy Lists.
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BYMS 2066
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: 160th MSF, Levant, (Eastern Mediterranean): 2065, 2066, 2067, 2074, 2185, 2186, 2191, 2229.
Built by: Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp., Whitestone, New York, USA.
Laid down: 20 April 1942.
Launched: 11 January 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 8 February 1943.
Returned to USA: 12 August 1944. Transferred to Greece and re-named Paralos.
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.