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.
Tempy. Lieut, J. Mason, DSC, 4 Dec 44. (In Command)
Tempy. Act. Sub-Lieut., J. G. Tennant, 12 Dec 44
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BYMS 2232
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: 166th MSF, Eastern Fleet, S.E. Asia: 2060, 2162, 2168, 2181, 2203, 2204, 2232 2236.
Built by: Frank L. Sample, Jr., Boothbay Harbor, Maine, USA.
Laid down: 12 January 1943.
Launched: 26 April 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 8 September 1943.
Returned to USA: 10 November 1946
Reported scuttled 13 Dec 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.
MOVEMENTS.
8 September 1943, completed.
26 Sep 1943, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
28 Oct 1943, New York, USA.
1 to 11 Nov 1943, Horta, Azores.
22 to 29 Nov 1943, Gibraltar.
2 Dec 1943, Tunisia.
14 Dec 1943, Malta.
19 and 29 Dec 1943, Port Said, Egypt.
20 and 21 Dec 1943, Suez, Suez Canal, Egypt.
26 Dec 1943, Aden, Yemen.
1 Jan 1944, Aden, Yemen.
8 to 16 Jan 1944, Bombay, India.
20 Jan to 12 Feb 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (Today Sri Lanka)
31 Aug 1944, Visaagapatam, India.
30 July 1945, Colombo, Ceylon, (Today Sri Lanka)
10 November 1946, returned to USA.