OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Not on Navy Lists.
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BYMS 2077
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: 153rd MFS, Mediterranean: 2009, 2019, 2022, 2026, 2027, 2037, 2077, 2171, 2172.
Built by: Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp., Whitestone, New York, USA.
Laid down: 3 October 1942.
Launched: 15 May 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 6 July 1943.
Returned to USA:
Sunk by mine in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. 24 October 1944.
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.
6 July 1943, completed.
19 Aug 1943, New York, USA.
23 Aug 1943, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
24 Aug, 1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
27 and 28 Aug 1943, St John’s Newfoundland, Canada.
2 May 1944, Gibraltar.
24 October 1944, Sunk by mine in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece.
BYMS.2077, Crew Loss, 25 October 1944 DOW, Died of Wounds, MPK, Missing Presumed Killed.
BAXANDALE, Edward, Stoker, RNPS, LT/KX 157627, MPK.
BREMNER, John W, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 170565, MPK.
CALL, Frederick J, Ty/Act/Lieutenant Commander, RNR, DOW.
CAMPBELL, Andrew D, Stoker, RNPS, LT/KX 527201, MPK
COCKERILL, Victor J, Steward, RNPS, LT/LX 31344, MPK
CURRIE, James, Engineman, RNPS, LT/KX 148979, MPK
DAVIES, John J, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 373139, MPK
DERAIMO, Norman P, Stoker, RNPS, LT/KX 154703, MPK
GLEED, Robert G, Ordinary Signalman, RNPS, LT/JX 322654, MPK
GREEN, Alfred W G, Engineman, LT/KX 135857, killed
JAMESON, Henry J, Signalman, RNPS, LT/JX 344525, MPK
JONES, Ivor W, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 428513, MPK
MACKIE, James, Engineman, RNPS, LT/KX 114173, MPK
MALLETT, James M, Stoker, RNPS, LT/KX 532617, MPK
PACKWOOD, Harold, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 299618, MPK
RUTHERFORD, George, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 354943, MPK
SMITH, Horace C, Ty/Sub Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK
SPARKES, Victor M, Engineman, RNPS, LT/KX 124782, MPK
WEBSTER, Frederick J, Stoker, RNPS, LT/KX 156122, MPK
WETHERILL, Samuel, Telegraphist, RNPS, LT/JX 269428, MPK
BYMS 2077 being launched.