MOVEMENTS.
1 January 1944, completed.
No movements listed.
3 Oct 1944, Detonated a mine with the loss of two of her crew.
25 Aug 1945, returned to USA.
CREW LOSS
Tuesday, 3 October 1944.
BUTLER, John E, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 280226, killed.
MIALL, Arthur S, Chief Engineman, RNPS, LT/KX 98760, killed.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut. G. Matthews, Nov 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Lieut., S. S. Mitchell, 16 June 44. (In Command)
Tempy. Lieut., E. R. Savidge, 16 June 44.
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BYMS 2154
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: 169th MSF, Dover: 2050, 2064, 2152, 2154, 2255, 2277, 2278, 2284.
Built by: Campbell Machine Co., San Diego, San Diego, California, USA (West Coast).
Laid down: 14 August 1942.
Launched: 4 September 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 1 January 1944.
Returned to USA: 25 Aug 1945.
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.