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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Kite (AM 75)

Kite Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 18 June 1928 as the trawler M/V Holy Cross by Bath Iron Works, Bath, ME for F. J. O'Hara and Sons, Inc. of Boston, MA
  • Launched 24 November 1928
  • Delivered 27 November 1928
  • Renamed Kite 14 August 1940 by U.S. Navy prior to acquisition
  • Acquired by the Navy 11 September 1940
  • Conversion to a Minesweeper began 12 September 1940 by the Bethlehem Steel Co., East Boston, MA
  • Commissioned USS Kite (AM 75), 3 March 1941
  • Conversion completed in April 1941
  • Decommissioned 14 August 1944 at Quincy, MA
  • Struck from the Navy Register 22 August 1944
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration 2 March 1945 and sold
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 482 t.
  • Length 124' 3"
  • Beam 23'
  • Draft 10' 6"
  • Speed 9 kts.
  • Armament: One 3"/23 mount and two .30 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: One 360hp Fairbanks Morse diesel engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Kite 83k
    Namesake:

    Kite - A small or medium bird of the hawk family

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Kite 268k 25 March 1941
    Off Boston, MA
    National Archives photo 19-N-23650    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Kite 149k 2 August 1941
    USS Kite and USS Linnet [AM 76] are getting post-commissioning alterations at a shipyard in Portsmouth VA
    Photo by George Strock, Life Magazine, used for educational and non-commercial purpose    		 John Chiquoine
    Photos added 1 October 2021
    Kite 313k
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR George Louis Burns, USNR3 March 1941 - 1943
    02LT Jacob Schulman, USN1943 - 14 August 1944
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Kite (AM 75)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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