BYMS 2187
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: 156th MSF, Mediterranean : 2031, 2056, 2068, 2072, 2073, 2187, 2190, 2209.
Built by: Greenport Basin and Construction Co., Greenport, Long Island, New York, USA.
Laid down: 27 June 1942.
Launched: 7 September 1942.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 12 March 1943.
Returned to USA: 10 June 1947. Sold in Malta and re-named, Lord Strickland. Later renamed Amiral de Joinville and Centaur.
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.
Tempy. Lieut., P. Moore, 1 Oct 43. (In Command)
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., V. G. Button 4 July 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Lieut., P. Moore, 1 Oct 43. (In Command)
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BYMS 2187 after the war, renamed Amiral de Joinville and used as a ferry.
BYMS 2187 with sister minesweeper BYMS 2086.
MOVEMENTS.
12 March 1943, completed.
12 May 1943, New York, USA.
22 to 22 May 1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
3 May 1943, St John’s Newfoundland, Canada.
11 to 15 June 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
7 July 1943, Falmouth.
25 to 31 July 1943, Gibraltar.
5 to 20 Aug 1943, Bizerte, Tunisia.
25 Aug to 9 Dec 1943, Gibraltar.
14 Dec 1943, Malta.
4 March 1944, Malta.
1 to 10 April 1945, Taranto, Italy.
10 April to 11 May 1944, Brindisi, Italy, Adriatic.
15 May 1944, Taranto, Italy.
16 May 1944, Taranto, Italy.
16 Aug 1944, Naples, Italy.
18 Aug to 29 Sep 1944, Taranto, Italy.
30 Sep to 2 Oct 1944, Bari, Italy, Adriatic.
9 to 14 Oct 1944, Bari, Italy, Adriatic.
15 Oct to 8 Nov 1944, Taranto, Italy.
13 Nov 1944, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
19 June 1945, Ancona, Italy, Adriatic.
4 July 1945, Venice, Italy.
10 June 1947, returned to USA.