BYMS 2033
British Yard Mine Sweeper
BRITISH YARD MINE SWEEPERS
BYMS’s were built in the United States and transferred the Royal Navy under the Lend-lease Programme. “British Yard Mine Sweepers” are so called because they were built to the same design as the US Navy’s “Yard Mine Sweepers”.
Crews for the BYMS’s would sail to the United States, often on the Queen Mary, which could sail unescorted because of her greater speed, to collect their vessel. They would then have the formidable task of sailing their small vessel back across the Atlantic Ocean, often in winter.
MINE SWEEPING FLOTILLA: 162nd MSF, Eastern Mediterranean: 2033, 2053, 2075, 2174, 2175, 2212, 2240.
Built by: American Car and Foundry Co., Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
Laid down: 1 June 1942.
Launched: 6 January 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 3 June 1943.
Returned to USA: 1 January 1946 and was loaned to Greece.
Transferred to Greece 22 July 1952.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Wooden hull. Length, 130 feet. Beam, 25 feet 6 inches. Depth, 12 feet I inch. Draft, 8 foot 10.5 inches. Displacement 207-215 tons.
Engine: Two 800 bhp General Motors diesel engines.
Speed: 14.6 knots. 10 knots while sweeping. (Eight knots with double Oropesa sweeps)
Range: 2,500 at ten knots.
Compliment: 3 officers and 27 men.
Armament: One 3-inch HA/LA gun and two Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns.
BYMS’s were fitted with a drum on the stern with LL (double L) cables for sweeping magnetic mines, an acustic hammer on the bow for sweeping acustic mines and Oropesa floats for sweeping tethered mines.
All YMS and BYMS were built to the same design, the only variation was in the number of exhaust stacks. Minesweepers 1 to 134 had two sacks, 135 to 480 had one stack, 466 to 479 had no stacks.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Lieut., L. C. Chapman, 1 Oct 43. (In Command)
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., I. Blankfield 16 June 44
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BYMS 2033.
MOVEMENTS.
3 June 1943. Completed.
9 Aug 1943, New York, USA.
12 Aug 1943 Boston, USA.
16 Aug 1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
18 to 20 Aug 1943, St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada.
27 to 28 Aug 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
5 Oct 1943, Falmouth.
15 Oct 1943, Milford Haven.
23 Oct to 1 Nov. 1943, Gibraltar.
5 to 8 Nov 1943, Malta.
25 May 1944, Port Side, Egypt.
258 May to 28 July 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
1 to 3 Aug 1944, Famagusta, Cyprus.
9 Aug 1944, Cannakale, Turkey (the Dardanelles)
5 to 17 Oct 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
28 Oct 1944, Kiathos, Greece.
1 to 19 April, 1945, Alaxandria, Egypt.
21 April to 9 Aug 1945, Piraeus, Greece.
11 Aug 1945, Alaxandria, Egypt.
1 January 1946, Returned to USA.