BYMS 2203
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.
June 1944, BYMS 2203, her sister minesweeper BYMS 2282 together with US Navy vessels, USS Greiner, USS SC-1364 helped in the search for the Japanese submarine RO 111 60 miles of Roi, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.
MINE SWEEPING FLOTILLA: 166th MSF, Eastern Fleet, S.E. Asia: 2060, 2162, 2168, 2181, 2203, 2204, 2232 2236.
Built by: Hiltebrant Dock Co., Kingston, New York, USA.
Laid down: 15 January 1942.
Launched: 15 January 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 31 August 1943.
Returned to USA: 12 November 1946
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.
Above and below, BYMS 2203 on sea trials before being handed over the the Royal Navy.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Tempy. Lieut., R. D. Adam, 1 Sept. (In Command)
Tempy. Act. Sub-Lieut. S. J. F. Jewiss, 1 Sept 43.
Tempy. Act. Sub-Lieut. D. E. Jones, 1 Sept 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., R. D. Adam, 1 Sept 43. (In Command)
Tempy. | Sub-Lieut., S. J. F. Jewiss, 1 Sept 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Lieut., D. Adam 1 Sept 43. (In Command)
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., C. D. Prosser, 12 Nov 44
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., A. W. Troughton 14 Mar 45. R.N.Z.N.V.R.
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MOVEMENTS.
31 August 1943, completed.
28 Oct 1943, New York
2 to 7 Nov 1943, Bermuda.
15 to 22 Nov 1943, Horta, Azores.
21 to 29 Nov 1943 Gibraltar.
21 Dec 1943, Tunisia.
14 Dec 1943, Malta.
19 and 20 Dec 1943, Port Said, Egypt.
20 and 21 Dec 1943, Suez, Suez Canal, Egypt.
26 Dec 1943, Aden, Yemen.
1 Jan 1944, Aden, Yemen.
7 to 16 Jan 1944, Bombay, India.
20 Jan 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (Sri Lanka)
1 to 6 April 1944, Visaagapatam, India.
8 April 1944, Calcutta, India.
23 Sep 1944, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
26 Sep 1944, Visaagapatam, India.
14 to 19 Dec 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (Sri Lanka)
2 to 18 May 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (Sri Lanka)
12 November 1946, returned to USA.