USS DASH MSO 428

Dash Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 2 July 1951 by the Astoria Marine Construction Co., Astoria, Oregon; Launched, 20 September 1952; Commissioned USS Dash (AM-428), 14 August 1953; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-428, 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 2 October 1982; Struck from the Naval Register, (date unknown); 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 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, 2 GM 278A main engines 678A #1 ss gen 250kw and a 871 for 32 ss gen.100kw , 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.

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.