MOVEMENTS.
5 June 1943, completed.
27 July 1943, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
17 and 18 Aug 1943, St John’s Newfoundland, Canada.
28 Aug 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
26 Sep 1943, Milford Haven.
3 to 5 Oct 1943, Gibraltar.
11 to 13 Oct 1943, Malta.
2 Nov 1943, Alaxandria, Egypt.
15 December 1943, returned to USA and transferred to Greece.
2 March 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
4 March to 29 May 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
23 May to 11 June 1944, Bizerte, Tunisia.
20 July to 5 Sep 1944, Naples, Italy.
6 Sep to 9 Oct 1944, Malta.
21 Nov to 4 Dec 1944, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
19 Dec 1944, Syria.
22 Dec 1944, Malta.
23 Dec 1944, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
24 Dec 1944 Syria.
10 to 14 Jan 1945, Syria.
18 Jan 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
25 Jan to 26 Feb 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
16 to 25 April 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
6 to 12 April, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
8 and 9 May 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
31 May 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
15 August 1945, Laconitos Bay, Greece.
28 August to 18 Sep 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
19 Sep 1945, Lefkas (Lefkada) Island off the west coast of Greece.
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.
If you, your father or your grandfather have any additional information about this ship, crew lists, stories, photographs, please send copies of them to be added to our records and this website.
Thank you.
Contact: johntenthousand@yahoo.co.uk
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BYMS 2229
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: 160th MSF: 2065, 2066, 2067, 2074, 2185, 2186, 2191, 2229. Levant, (Eastern Mediterranean) 1943.
Built by: Frank L. Sample, Jr., Boothbay Harbor, Maine, USA.
Laid down: 7 September 1942.
Launched: 11 January 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 5 June 1943,
Returned to USA: 15 December 1943,
Transferred to Greece 15 December 1943 and renamed Patmos.
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.