OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., W. G. T. Lewis 3 Feb 44.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Act. Sub-Lieut., H. E. Smith. 29 Mar 45.
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BYMS 2246
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: Tacoma Boat Building Co., Tacoma, Washington, USA. West Coast.
Laid down: 24 November 1942.
Launched: 11 March 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 27 August 1943.
Returned to USA: 27 August 1943.
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.
27 August 1943, completed.
22 Aug 1944, Falmouth.
24 and 25 Aug 1944, Oban.
26 Aug 1944, Inverness.
31 Aug 1944, Cromarty, Scotland.
26 to 30 March 1945, Swansea.
31 March to 6 April 1945, Falmouth.
13 to 15 April 1945, Gibraltar.
21 April to 19 May 1945, Malta.
23 and 24 May 1945, Port Said, Egypt.
4 to 8 June 1945, Suez, Suez Canal, Egypt.
16 June 1945, Aden, Yemen.
26 June to 20 July 1945, Bombay, India.
25 July 1945, Mandapam, India.
2 Aug 1945, Colombo, Ceylon, (Today Sri Lanka)
27 August 1943, returned to USA.