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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Speed (MSF 116)
ex-AM-116



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Alpha - Golf


Speed served the Navies of the United States and South Korea.
Auk Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 17 November 1941 by the American Ship Building Co., Cleveland, OH
  • Launched 18 April 1942
  • Commissioned USS Speed (AM-116), 15 October 1942
  • Decommissioned 7 June 1946 and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Diego, CA
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists out of commission, in reserve as December 1945
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel-hull), MSF-116, 7 February 1955
  • Transferred to South Korea 17 November 1967 and renamed Sunchon (PCE-1002)
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 890 t.
  • Length 221' 2"
  • Beam 32'
  • Draft 10' 9"
  • Speed 18.1 kts.
  • Complement 105
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 40mm gun mounts, two 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, and five depth charge projectors
    Added by South Korea - One 3"/50 dual purpose mount and one Mk 32 triple torpedo tube
  • Propulsion: Two 1,766shp General Motors 12-278 diesel engines, Farrel- Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Speed (AM 116)
    Speed 94k Under construction Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    USS Speed (AM 116)
    Speed 399k Original photo: c. February 1943.
    Gear for sweeping contact and magnetic mines is mounted on her fantail. A hedgehog projector is mounted forward, with K-guns and depth-charge tracks aft
    Replacement photo: Aerial view of minesweeper USS Speed (AM-116) underway
    National Archives photo 80-G-28463    		 Original photo: Joe Radigan
    Replacement photo: Naval History and Heritage Command
    Replacement photo added 16 February 2021
    ROKN Sunchon (PCE 1002)
    Speed 130k U.S. Navy photo Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Ernest Louis Posey, USN15 October 1942
    02LCDR Herbert Augustus Peterson, USNR - Awarded the Navy Cross (1944)25 January 1943 - 4 September 1943
    03LT Raymond Charles Dryer, USN4 September 1943
    04LT John Frank Maddox, Jr., USN1 September 1945 - 7 June 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Speed (MSF 116)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Fleet Minesweeper (MSF) Photo Index
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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo & maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & Michael Mohl
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