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UPDATED:JUL 23 2008
WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 15 April 1952 at Wilmington Boat Works Inc., Wilmington,
CA; Launched, 30 April 1954; Commissioned USS Prestige (AM-465), 11 September 1954; Reclassified as an Ocean
Minesweeper, MSO-465, 7 February 1955. Grounded in Naruto Straits, Inland Sea, Japan 23 August 1958. Abandoned
as a total loss..
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,
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. MSOs were
capable of sweeping for moored, bottom contact, magnetic and acoustic mines.
WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON MEN a book by CDR David D.Bruhn USN RET. A complete 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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