BYMS 2191
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., Greenport, Long Island, New York, USA.
Laid down: 7 September 1942.
Launched: 14 November 1942.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 1 June 1943.
Returned to the US Navy on 15 December 1943 and transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy.
Sunk by mine, 15 Oct 1944.
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.
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Contact: johntenthousand@yahoo.co.uk
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MOVEMENTS.
1 June 1943, completed.
27 July 1943, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
30 31 July 1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
2 to 8 Aug 1943, St John’s Newfoundland, Canada.
15 to 18 Aug 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
19 to 23 Aug 1943, Milford Haven.
26 Sep 1943, Milford Haven.
3 to 5 Oct 1943, Gibraltar.
11 to 13 Oct 1943, Malta.
13 Oct 1943 Alaxandria, Egypt.
15 December 1943 and transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy and renamed Kos.
4 March 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
25 May to 11 June 1944, Bizerte, Tunisia.
1 to 18 July 1944, Bizerte, Tunisia.
20 July 1to 12 Aug 944, Naples, Italy.
4 and 5 Sep 1944, Naples, Italy
6 Sep to 9 Oct 1944, Malta.
15 Oct 1944, sunk by mine, off Piraeus, Greece, Three crew were killed