USS Redpoll (AMS-57)

USS Redpoll (AMS-57/YMS-294) was a YMS-1-class minesweeper of the YMS-135 subclass acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of removing mines that had been placed in the water to prevent ships from passing.

History
United States
Ordered: as YMS-294
Laid down: 10 June 1943
Launched: 11 August 1943
Commissioned: 11 September 1943
Decommissioned: 12 November 1946
In service: 20 November 1950
Out of service: 8 November 1957
Stricken: 1 July 1959
Fate: scrapped 1 December 1976
General characteristics
Displacement: 265 tons
Length: 136 ft (41 m)
Beam: 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Draught: 8 ft (2.4 m)
Speed: 15 knots
Complement: 32
Armament: one 3 in (76 mm) gun mount, two 20 mm machine guns, two depth charge racks, two depth charge tracks

Operational history

Redpoll was laid down as YMS-294, 10 June 1943 by Associated Shipbuilders, Lake Union, Seattle, Washington; launched 11 August 1943; sponsored by Miss Joanne Swanson; and commissioned 11 September 1943.

In the Puget Sound area through the fall of 1943, YMS-294 moved south to San Pedro, California, in January 1944 and operated out of that port until April. On the 21st, the motor minesweeper steamed west and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 May. Thence, she completed a run to Midway Island and back, and in June she continued on to the Marshall Islands.

There through the end of the war, she engaged in patrol operations, convoy escort duty and minesweeping operations principally out of Kwajalein and Eniwetok. In December 1945, she returned to Hawaii; remained there until February; then, ordered inactivated, got underway for the U.S. East Coast. She arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, in late June, received new orders, and in September retraced her route back to the Gulf of Mexico for duty in the 8th Naval District. On 12 November she was decommissioned and placed in service at New Orleans, Louisiana. The following month she assumed U.S. Naval Reserve training duties at Houston, Texas.

Named Redpoll and redesignated AMS-57, 1 September 1947, she was recommissioned effective 20 November 1950, but until 1952 remained in the 8th Naval District as a reserve training ship. In May 1952, she departed Lake Charles, Louisiana, and steamed back to the Atlantic coast. Assigned to the 5th Naval District for the next 5 years, she operated out of Norfolk, Virginia, for 2 years, then, in June 1954, shifted to Yorktown, Virginia, for duty with the Mine Warfare School.

On 7 February 1955, Redpoll was redesignated MSCO-57, and in October 1957 she was ordered to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for reserve training duty. She arrived at her new homeport 2 November and 6 days later, 8 November, was again decommissioned and placed in service. A little over ​1 1⁄2 years later she completed her last tour. She was placed out of service and struck from the Navy list 1 July 1959.

References


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