USS FIDELITY MSO 443

Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 15 December 1952 at Higgins Inc., New Orleans, LA; Launched, 21 August 1953; Commissioned USS Fidelity (AM-443), 19 January 1955; Redesignated as an Ocean Minesweeper MSO-443, 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 19 May 1989; Struck from the Naval Register, 16 June 1989; Sold for scrapping, 10 September 1990 to Wyns Hoggs for $13,775.

Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 8 Officers, 70 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, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesels, 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.