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WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
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| Courtesy of Roy Reel |
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down 20 July 1953 as AM-461 at Higgins Inc., New Orleans, LA;
Launched 19 October 1954; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-461, 7 February 1955; Commissioned USS Observer (MSO-461),
31 August 1955;Decommissioned 28 July 1972; Struck from the Naval Register 1 September 1977; Sold for scrapping 1 April
1979 by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Union Minerals and Alloys Corp., New York, NY for $20,250.
Specifications: Displacement 630 t.(lt), 755 t.(fl); Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 10'; Speed 14
kts; Complement 6 Officers, 74 Enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal machine guns, bow
gun removed when SQQ-14 installed. 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.
| CALL SIGN |
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| NOVEMBER PAPA KILO ALPHA |
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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