Thank you to Christopher Thompson for asking his son to send the following photographs of his father sub-lieutenant Norman H Thompson who served on BYMS 2244 in the Indian Ocean .
MOVEMENTS.
3 July 1943, completed.
27 Oct 1943, Cristobal, Panama Canal.
31 Oct to 6 Nov 1943, Trinadad.
20 Nov to 30 Nov 1943, Recife, Brazil.
9 Nov 1943, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
1 April 1944, Takordi. (Sekondi-Takoradi) Ghana, West Africa.
15 Aug 1944, Lagos, Nigeria.
6 Nov 1944, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
8 to 10 Nov 1944, Bathurst, Sierra Leone.
18 Nov 1944, Casablanca, Morocco.
20 to 27 Nov 1944, Gibraltar.
3 to 5 Dec 1944, Falmouth.
5 to 28 Dec 1944, Dartmouth.
28 to 30 Dec 1944, Falmouth.
31 Dec 1944, Milford Haven.
1 to 4 Jan 1945, Oban.
4 and 5 Jan, 1945, Fort William.
31 July 1945, Aberdeen.
8 to 11 Sep 1945, Ardrossan, Scotland (West Coast)
16 to 22 Sep 1945, Swansea.
14 November 1947, returned to USA.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1943.
Not on Navy Lists.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, June 1944.
Tempy. Lieut., D. B. Delafield 1 Jan 44
Tempy. Lieut., (Sp. Br.) J. M. Jacob, Mar 44.
OFFICERS ON THE NAVY LIST, July 1945.
On Navy List 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 2244 at Gibraltar on her way to the Indian Ocean
BYMS 2244 with her American number.
BYMS 2244 "Flat out in the Red Sea".
Some unofficial paint work on a 3-inch HA/LA gun.
Officers of BYMS 2244 at Maltar, Silema Creek.
Sub-lieutenant Norman H Thompson is on the right.
BYMS 2244
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: 154th MSF, West Africa: 2010, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2025, 2149, 2244, 2261.
Built by: Tacoma Boat Building Co., Tacoma, Washington, USA, West Coast.
Laid down: 5 October 1942.
Launched: 18 December 1942.
Handed over to Royal Navy: 3 July 1943.
Returned to USA: 14 November 1947.
Force 11, Malaya.
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.