YMS-1-class minesweeper

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Class overview
NameYMS-1
Builders35 yacht builders [1]
Operators
Succeeded by Atada class (Japan)
SubclassesYMS-136, YMS-446
In commissionabout March 1942 [1] – 13 December 1957 [2]
Completed481 [1]
CancelledYMS-482 – YMS-500
Active0
Lost32 [3]
General characteristics
Type Minesweeper
Displacement270 tons
Length136 ft (41 m)
Beam24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Draft8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion
Speed15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement32
Armament

The YMS-1 class of auxiliary motor minesweepers was established with the laying down of YMS-1 on 4 March 1941. Some were later transferred to the United Kingdom as part of the World War II Lend-Lease pact between the two nations. One ship eventually made its way into the Royal Canadian Navy postwar.

Contents

Design

The design for the class had a displacement of 270 tonnes. The ships had a length of 136 feet (41 m), a beam of 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m), and a draft of 8 ft (2.4 m). The vessels were capable of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), being powered by two 440  shp (330 kW) General Motors (Cleveland) 8-268A, 2-cycle diesel engines which drove two shafts.

The ships had a complement of 32. Their armament comprised one single 3-inch/50 caliber gun mount, two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns and two depth charge projectors.

YMS-1-class ships were relatively small compared to larger contemporary US Navy ships. This led to a view by some sailors that the YMS-designated ships were cramped and particularly unsteady. These conditions were described (and surely exaggerated) by one author in a humorous poem "warning" other sailors to not transfer:

Men don't live on YMS's
they just exist under strains and stresses,
tossed around like a bundle of peas,
inside their ship on the calmest seas.

— Anonymous, "A Plug for a Distinguished Nervuos Cross" [1]

Subclasses

There were two mostly cosmetic sub-types of the class, sometimes referred to as classes themselves

YMS-135 subclass

This subclass was identical but had only one stack rather than two, and consisted of hull numbers YMS-135 through -445, YMS-480, and YMS-481.

YMS-446 subclass

This subclass was also identical but had no stacks, and comprised YMS 446–YMS 479.

BYMS

Eighty vessels of the class were ordered from US yards for transfer under Lend-Lease to the United Kingdom as the BYMS-class minesweeper. Another 53 built for the US Navy (with hull numbers between YMS-137 and -284) were transferred as further BYMS and another 17 were delivered later.

Other exports

France received 31 YMS-class minesweepers during World War 2, with one (D202, formerly YMS-77) being sunk by a mine in 1944. France kept its YMS-class ships in service after the end of the war, [4] with seven remaining in service in 1962, used as training ships in the École Navale and as experimental vessels. Three ships of the class were transferred from France to South Vietnam in 1954, while another was transferred to Madagascar in 1961. [5]

In 1947, Poland acquired former BYMS-2211 (renamed ORP Delfin), BYMS-2257 (renamed ORP Foka), and BYMS-2282 (renamed ORP Mors). [6] The vessels were re-armed with Soviet 85 mm air defense gun M1939 (52-K) and four Soviet NSV machine guns. In the mid-1950s, they were removed from service. The ORP Delfin was scuttled in the Bay of Puck, where it remains a diving attraction.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force received 8 vessels of this class in the 1950s. The class was named Ujishima-class minesweeper. The ships were:

Examples

Survivors

See also

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Lapwing</i> (AMS-48) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Lapwing was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after the lapwing.

USS <i>Turkey</i> (AMS-56) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Turkey (AMS-56/YMS-444) was a YMS-135 subclass of YMS-1-class minesweepers built for the United States Navy during World War II.

USS <i>Pelican</i> (AMS-32) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Pelican was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of removing mines that had been placed in the water to prevent ships from passing.

USS <i>Merganser</i> (AMS-26) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Merganser (AMS-26/AMCU-47/MHC-47) was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II.

USS <i>Swan</i> (AMS-37) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

The second USS Swan was a US Navy YMS-1-class minesweeper in commission from 1944 to 1946, and again from 1950 to 1955. She was laid down on 12 August 1943 by the Gibbs Gas Engine Co., at Jacksonville, Florida, as Patrol Craft, Sweeper, PCS-1438; and was redesignated Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper YMS-470, on 27 September 1943. Launched on 5 April 1944; the ship was completed and commissioned on 14 October 1944.

USS Flamingo was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the third U.S. Navy ship to be named for the flamingo.

USS <i>Plover</i> (AMS-33) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Plover was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the U.S. Navy during World War II.

USS <i>Grouse</i> (AMS-15) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Grouse (AMS-15/YMS-321) was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II.

USS <i>Condor</i> (AMS-5) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Condor was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the second U.S. Navy ship named for the condor.

USS <i>Hawk</i> (AMS-17) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Hawk was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II.

USS <i>Curlew</i> (AMS-8) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Curlew was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the fourth U.S. Navy ship to be named for the curlew.

USS <i>Grackle</i> (AMS-13) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Grackle was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass built for the United States Navy during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auxiliary motor minesweepers</span>

Auxiliary motor minesweepers were small wood-hulled minesweepers commissioned by the United States Navy for service during World War II. The vessels were numbered, but unnamed. The auxiliary motor minesweepers were originally designated yard minesweepers (YMS) and kept the abbreviation YMS after being re-designated. The type proved successful and eventually became the basis for the AMS type of United States Navy minesweeper.

HMS <i>BYMS-2203</i> Minesweeper of the Royal Navy

HMS BYMS-2203 was a YMS-1-class auxiliary motor minesweeper originally built for the United States Navy during World War II. Upon completion she was transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease. She was returned to the U.S. Navy after conclusion of the war, and struck soon after. She was never commissioned in the U.S. Navy.

HMS <i>BYMS-2282</i> Minesweeper of the Royal Navy

HMS BYMS-2282 was a BYMS-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was built as YMS-282 for the United States Navy but was transferred under Lend-Lease to the United Kingdom upon completion and never commissioned into the United States Navy. BYMS-2282 was transferred to the Polish Navy after conclusion of the war and served as ORP Mors.

USS <i>Chatterer</i> (AMS-40) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Chatterer (AMS-40/YMS-415) was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of removing mines that had been placed in the water to prevent ships from passing.

USS <i>Courlan</i> (AMS-44) Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS Courlan was an YMS-1-class auxiliary motor minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of removing mines that had been placed in the water to prevent ships from passing.

<i>Adjutant</i>-class minesweeper United States-built auxiliary motor minesweepers

The Adjutant-class auxiliary motor minesweepers were built for the United States Navy throughout the 1950s and 1960s, even as late as 1978. Most were loaned to foreign countries under the Military Defense Assistance Pact, with only 24 actually commissioned by the US Navy, with 13 of those eventually being transferred to foreign nations as well. Initially classified as auxiliary motor minesweepers (AMS), on 7 February 1955, they were reclassified as coastal minesweepers (MSC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Coast Shipyard</span> Shipyard in Newport, California, United States

South Coast Shipyard was a shipbuilding company in Newport, California. To support the World War II demand for ships South Coast Shipyard built: minesweepers, Torpedo Boats, Submarine chasers, & Air-sea rescue boats. South Coast Shipyard was opened in 1938 by Walton Hubbard. After World War II the shipyard continued to build ships for the US Navy till 1955. The shipyard was located at 2300 Newport Boulevard, Newport, California. The shipyard closed in 1963.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Priolo, Gary P. (2006). "Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper (YMS), British Motor Minesweeper (BYMS) Index". NavSource Online. NavSource Naval History. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
  2. ↑ Radigan, Joseph M. (2006). "Ruff (MSC[O] 54), ex-AMS-54, ex-YMS-327". NavSource Online. NavSource Naval History. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
  3. ↑ For both YMS-1 and BYMS classes a total 40 were lost. Of those 40, 32 were YMS-1 class. (See: "YMS class Minesweepers". Uboat.net. Retrieved 20 December 2007.)
  4. ↑ Masson 1969, pp. 59, 61–53.
  5. ↑ Blackman 1962, p. 94.
  6. ↑ Twardowski, Marek (June 2001). "Trałowce typu BYMS w polskiej służbie" [BYMS minesweepers in Polish service]. Morza, Statki i Okręty (in Polish). Vol. VI, no. 31. ISSN   1426-529X.


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