BYMS 2060
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: 166th MSF, Eastern Fleet 1943: 2060, 2162, 2168, 2181, 2203, 2204, 2232 2236.
Built by: Westergard Boat Works, Inc., Biloxi, Mississippi, USA.
Laid down: 19 May 1942.
Launched: 20 February 1943.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 14 September 1943.
Returned to USA: September 1946.
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.
MOVEMENTS.
14 September 1943, completed.
12 Nov 1943, Charleston, South Carolina, United States.
15 Nov to 22 Dec 1943, Bermuda.
25 Nov 1943, Horta, Azores.
19 Dec 1943, Algiers, Algeria.
21 Dec 1943, Malta.
9 Jan 1944, Malta.
13 to 17 Jan 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
17 Jan to 2 March, 1944, Port Said, Egypt.
5 to 21 March 1944, Aden, Yemen.
1 April 1944, Bombay, India.
4 April 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (today Sri Lanka )
8 August, Calcutta, India.
10 August 1944, Visagapatam, India. (today Visakhapatnam)
8 Dec 1944, Colombo, Ceylon, (today Sri Lanka )
September 1946, returned to USA.
William John Ellis
Thank you to Bill Ellis who tells us about his father who served on BYMS 2060 (British Yard Mine Sweeper)
My father passed away in 1995.
I don't know too much about the ship, except for the following.
Sometimes the crew would shoot at mines with .303 rifles. (this was normal, but the idea was to hole and sink the mine, not explode it.)
My father fired several shots at a mine, only to discover it was an upturned palm tree.
Another story, a flying boat was spotted and the Captain ordered my father to shoot at it with the machine gun, my father protested it was one of our, the Captain overruled this, so my father fired behind the aircraft. (think it was a twin Lewis gun)?
About three days later a report to the captain, that a Sunderland flying boat was shot at. The Captain said nothing to my father.
I think the next story was Ceylon? The ship was about to sail from a harbour, which had been held by the American Navy.
Dad was on the stern as the ship set sail, the ship hit a sand bank, and the stern began to get lower in the water as the bow went over the sand, as dad was watching this, he noticed dinner plates being thrown up from the wash of the screws, which my father thought, as the Americans were going home, they could not be bothered with the washing up.
Another story, the ship sent a boat of Marines to land on an island somewhere? Dad told the Captain the boat used should have the brass petrol tank painted as it was highly polished. The Captain said it was a stupid remark, but covered the brass with netting. Sadly, the Marines got shot up, and when the boat returned, Dad could see a bullet hole through the petrol tank. He was then ordered to sew up the canvas coffins around the dead, to make ready for a sea funeral.
Dad along with the rest of the crew left the ship in 1945/6? And sailed home on HMS Victorious. He remembered sailing through the Suez Canal wearing a pullover, as 70 degrees felt cold.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., R. W. Orr, 15 Sept 43. (In Command)
Tempy. Lieut.,K. J. Brown, 15, Sept 43.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., R. Conde, 15 Sept 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., R. Conde 15 Sept 43.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., A. C. Eastaugh 21 Feb 45.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., (E) A. E. Ellis, 12 Nov 44.
If you, your father or your grandfather have any additional information about this ship, crew lists, stories, photographs, please send copies of them to be added to our records and this website.
Thank you.
Contact: johntenthousand@yahoo.co.uk
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BYMS 2060