USS ILLUSIVE MSO 448

Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 23 October 1951 by the Martinolich Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, CA; Launched, 12 July 1952; Commissioned USS Illusive (AM-448), 14 November 1953; Redesignated an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-448, 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 30 March 1990; Struck from the Naval Register, 1 June 1990; Sold for scrapping, 9 February 1993 by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Sea Witch Salvage, Baltimore, MD, for $12,000

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.