BYMS 2212
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, Levant, (Eastern Mediterranean): 2033, 2053, 2075, 2174, 2175, 2212, 2240.
Built by: Robert Jacobs Inc., City Island, New York, USA.
Laid down: 21 May 1942.
Launched: 16 October 1942.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 29 May 1943.
Returned to USA: 6 June 1947. Sold to Egypt and re-named Kordofan.
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.
29 May 1943, completed.
27 July 1943, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
30 and 31 July 1943, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
2 to 8 July 1943, St John’s Newfoundland, Canada.
16 to 18 Aug 1943, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
26 Sep 1943, Milford Haven.
3 to 5 Oct 1943, Gibraltar.
11 to 13 Oct 1943, Malta.
18 Oct to 13 Nov 1943, Alaxandria, Egypt.
6 Nov 1943, Beirut, Lebanon.
2 Jan 1944, Beirut, Lebanon.
3 to 20 Jan 1944, Haifa, Palestine, (today Israel)
20 Jan 1944, Beirut, Lebanon.
3 Feb 1944, Haifa, Palestine, (today Israel)
14 Feb 1944, 20 Jan 1944, Beirut, Lebanon.
17 Feb 1944, Haifa, Palestine.
17 Feb to 13 April 1944, Beirut, Lebanon.
13 April to 20 May 1944, Haifa, Palestine.
23 to 30 May 1944, Beirut, Lebanon.
30 May to 7 June 1944, Haifa, Palestine.
9 Aug to 12 Oct 1944, Alaxandria, Egypt.
3 Feb to 13 June 1945, Alaxandria, Egypt.
2 to 17 July 1945, Piraeus, (Athens) Greece.
17 Sep 1945, Salonika, (Thessaloniki) Greece.
21 Sep 1945, Malta.
22 Sep 1945, Messina, Sicily.
6 June 1947, returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Tempy. Lieut., R. A. L. Viner, 6 Sept 43.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., J. E. Smith, 6 Sept 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., R. A. L. Viner 6 Sept 43.
Tempy. Lieut., J. E. Smith, 6 Sept 43.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
Tempy. Lieut.-Com., R. A. L. Viner, DSC (act). 6 Sept 43.
Tempy. Sub-Lieut., J. A. Sampson, Oct 44.
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