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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Sway (MSF-120)
ex-AM-120



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Juliet - Papa


Sway served the Navies of the United States and Mexico.

Auk Class Minesweeper:Laid down 18 November 1941 by the John H. Mathis Co., Camden, NJ
  • Launched 29 September 1942
  • Commissioned USS Sway (AM 120), 20 July 1943
  • Fired on and damaged PT-201 - with Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, Commanding General, Fifth Army, on board - 28 January 1944 off Anzio, Italy
  • Placed in reserve, in commission, 22 February 1946 at San Diego, CA
  • Decommissioned 15 January 1947
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists out of commission, in reserve as December 1945
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-120, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1972, transferred to Mexico and renamed ARM Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (G 12)
  • Reclassified P-111
  • 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
  • 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
    USS Sway (AM 120)
    Sway 81k Max E. Wolters, RM2/c
    Sway 65k Sway's scorecard
    ARM Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (P 111)
    Sway 111k Namesake: Ignacio Manuel Basilio - Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Basilio (13 November 1834 – 13 February 1893) was a Mexican radical liberal writer, journalist, teacher and politician. He wrote Clemencia (1869), which is often considered to be the first modern Mexican novel Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 19 March 2020
    Sway 64k Mexican Navy photo Mexican Navy

    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Herman Stanley Strauss, USNR20 July 1943
    02LCDR Edwin Harold Jones, Jr., USN15 July 1944 - 15 February 1945
    03LT Ralph Francis Wyrick, USN15 February 1945
    04LT Robert L. Keedick, USNR17 November 1945
    05LT Paul Roth, USN1953
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

    View the Sway (MSF 120)
    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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