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.
On Navy List but no Officer names.
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MOVEMENTS.
14 August 1943, completed.
24 Oct 1943, Seattle, Washington, USA. (West Coast)
3 Dec 1943, Balboa, Panama Canal.
7 Dec 1943, Cristoba, Panama Canal.
11 to 12 Dec 1943, Curacao.
14 to 20 Dec 1943, Trinidad.
26 Dec 1943, Belem (Para) Brazil.
8 Jan 1944, Belem (Para) Brazil
13 to 18 Jan 1944, Recife, Brazil.
25 Jan 1944, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
24 May 1945, Dakar, Senegal.
31 May 1945, Gibraltar.
4 June 1945, Plymouth.
15 June, 1945, Ramsgate.
16 June 1945, Great Yarmouth.
May 1947, returned to USA.
BYMS 2150
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: Western Boat Building Co., Tacoma, Washington, USA, West Coast.
Laid down: 6 December 1942.
Launched: 5 April 1943
Handed over to Royal Navy: 14 August 1943
Returned to USA: May 1947. Sold to Italy and re-named Gardania.
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.