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WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
Dash Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 23 April 1952 at Hiltebrant Dry Dock Co., Kingston,
NY; Launched, 5 November 1953; Commissioned USS Dominant (AM-431), 8 November 1954; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper,
MSO-431, 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 2 October 1982; Sold for scrapping 26 January 1984 to Wayne Hobbs, Huntington,
CA, for $22,229.
Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement
eight 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, two General Motors diesel
engines, replaced by two 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.
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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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