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WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 16 June 1952 by the Burger Boat Co., Manitowoc, Wis.; Launched,
23 June 1953; Commissioned USS Vigor (AM-473) at Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, Mass, 8 November 1954; Redesignated MSO-473,
7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 4 April 1972; Struck from the Naval Register, 4 April 1972; Final Disposition, sold to Spain,
4 April 1972 under the Security Assistance Program and renamed Guadiana (M-44); Decommissioned and struck from the Spanish
Navy List, 1 November 1999 and scrapped.
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, later updated
with SQQ-14 sonar. MSOs were capable of sweeping for moored, bottom contact, magnetic and acoustic mines.
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| NOVEMBER JULIETTE ECHO WHISKEY |
WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON MEN a book by CDR David D.Bruhn USN RET.The 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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