MOVEMENTS.
27 February 1943, completed.
12 May 1943, New York, USA.
20 and 22 May 1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
3 June 1943, St John’s Newfoundland, Canada.
11 to 15 June 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
7 July 1943, Falmouth.
25 July to 3 Aug 1943, Gibraltar.
5 to 20 Aug 1943, Bizerte, Tunisia.
23 Aug to 22 Nov 1943, Oran, Algeria.
12 Dec 1943, Alaxandria, Egypt.
9 June 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
16 June to 18 July 1944, Bizerte, Tunisia.
19 Aug to 4 Sep 1944, Naples, Italy.
8 Sep 1944, Malta.
18 Sep to 9 Oct 1944, Malta.
21 Nov 1944, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
15 to 23 Dec 1944, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
23 Dec 1944, Syros, Greek Island.
10 to 14 Jan 1945, Syros, Greek Island.
15 Jan 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
25 Jan 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
25 Jan 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
16 March to 12 April 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
8 an 9 May 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
31 May to 10 June 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
19 to 25 July 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
16 Aug 1945, Laconitos Bay.
11 to 14 Sep 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
16 and 17 Sep 1945, Navarinou, Greece.
17 and 18 Sep 1945, Katakolo, Pírgos, Western Greece.
18 and 19 Sep 1945, Ithaca, Greece, (Greek Island.)
19 Sep 1945, Preveza, Greece.
15 December 1943, returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
On Navy Lists but no officers listed.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
On Navy Lists but no officers listed.
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 2186
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: 160th MSF, Levant, (Eastern Mediterranean): 2065, 2066, 2067, 2074, 2185, 2186, 2191, 2229.
Built by: Greenport Basin and Construction Co., Long Island, New York, USA.
Laid down: 12 May 1942.
Launched: 22 August 1942.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 27 February 1943.
Returned to USA: 15 December 1943. assigned to the Royal Hellenic Navy and re-named Leros (M 210)
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.
BYMS 2186.