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UPDATED:JUN 13 2008
WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 23 July 1952 at Higgins Corp., New Orleans, LA; Launched,
17 July 1953; Commissioned USS Fearless
(AM-442), 22 September 1954; Redesignated as an Ocean Minesweeper,
MSO-442, 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 23 October 1990; Struck from the Naval Register, 28 October 1990; Laid up in the
Reserve Fleet; Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 4 December 1992 to Seawitch Salvage, Baltimore, MD,
for $6,000.
Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 78;
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.
| CALL SIGN |
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| November Juliette Golf Delta |
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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