BYMS 2264
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: South Coast Co., Newport Beach, (Los Angeles) California.
Laid down: 24 September 1942.
Launched: 18 January 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 26 October 1943.
Returned to USA: 10 November 1946 and sold 27 Oct 1947.
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.
26 October 1943, completed.
From West Africa.
3 to 5 Dec 44, Falmouth.
5 to 28 Dec 1944, Dartmouth.
28 to 30 Dec 1944, Falmouth.
31 Dec 1944, Milford Haven.
1 to 4 Jan 1945, Oban.
10 Jan 1945, Inverness.
20 April 1945, Aberdeen.
22 April to 9 May 1945, Harwich.
10 May to 23 June, 1945, Ostend, Belgium.
23 and 24 June Harwich.
24 and 25 June 1945, Nore Command (Thames Estuary.)
26 June to 3 Sep 1945 Plymouth.
9 to 19 Sep 1945, Gibraltar.
On her way to S.E. Asia.
10 November 1946, returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., K. Hauxwell, 27 Oct 43. (In Command)
Tempy. Lieut., C. E. Fairclough, 27 Oct 43.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., A. R. M. Partridge, 27 Oct 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Lieut., J. A. E. Richards, 15 Mar 45.
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