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WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 3 March 1952 at J. M. Martinac Shipbuilding Co., Tacoma,
Wash; Launched, 13 February 1953; Commissioned USS Energy (AM-436), 16 July 1954; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-436,
7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 5 July 1972 and loaned to Republic of the Philippines as RPS Davao del Norte (PM 91); Returned
to U.S. custody and struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1977; Sold for scrapping, 8 July 1977 to Ming Hing & Co., Kowloon,
Hong Kong, for $26,100.
Specifications: Displacement 630 t.(lt), 755 t.(fl); Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 10'; Speed 14
kts; Complement six officers, 74 enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal machine guns, final
configuration, bow gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remain; Propulsion, four Packard ID1700
diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
These new minesweepers were smaller and built primarily of wood , with bronze and stainless (non-magnetic)
steel fittings to minimize their magnetic signature. All of the 1950 era MSOs had UQS-1 mine-locating sonar, later updated
with SQQ-14 sonar. MSOs were capable of sweeping for moored, bottom contact, magnetic and acoustic mines.
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| November Romeo Quebec Oscar |
WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON MEN a book by CDR David D.Bruhn USN RET.The history of our MSO's from 1953
to 1994. To learn more about this excellent minesweeper book please visit CDR Bruhn's website at the link below.
David Bruhn
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