MOVEMENTS.
30 September 1943, completed.
16 Dec 1943, Seattle, Washington, USA. (West Coast)
25 Feb 1944, Balboa, Panama Canal.
3 March 1943, Cristoba, Panama Canal.
9 to 14 March, Trinadad.
20 25 March 1944, Belem, Brizil.
30 March to 7 April 1944, Recife, Brazil.
16 April 1944, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
25 July 1945, Takordi. (Sekondi-Takoradi) Ghana, West Africa.
4 Sept 1944, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
15 Sep 1944, Casablanca, Morocco.
17 July 1945, Humber.
26 August 1945, Cuxhaven. Germany.
27 August 1945. Humber.
November 1947, returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Skipper Lieut., E. Fawcett (act) 30 Sept 43. (In Command)
Skipper A.S. Ellington, 30 Sept 43.
Tempy. Skipper, B. Ashcroft, 30 Sep 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Skipper Lieut., E. Fawcett (act) 30 Sept 43 (In Command)
Tempy. Skipper, B. Ashcroft, 30 Sept 43.
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BYMS 2142
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: Astoria Marine Construction Co., Astoria, Oregon, United States. (West Coast)
Laid down: 22 April 1943.
Launched: 16 August 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 30 September 1943.
Returned to USA: November 1947. Sold to Italy and re-named Azalea.
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.