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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Zeal (MSF 131)
ex-AM-131



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Sierra - Xray
Auk Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down, 12 January 1942 by the Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL
  • Launched, 15 September 1942
  • Commissioned USS Zeal (AM 131), 9 July 1943
  • Decommissioned, 4 June 1946 at San Diego, CA
  • Recommissioned, 19 December 1951
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-131, 5 February 1955
  • Decommissioned, 6 July 1956
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 December 1966
  • Sunk as a target, 9 January 1967.

    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 twin 40mm gun mounts, two single 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, five depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 3,532shp General Motors 12-278 diesel electric engines, Farrel-Birmingham reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Zeal (AM 131)
    Zeal 62k . Frederick C. Rufe
    Zeal 49k . Frederick C. Rufe
    USS Zeal (MSF 131)
    Zeal 61k c. 1955 Frederick C. Rufe
    Zeal 61k c. 1955
    Pearl Harbor, HI
    Stern view    		 Ted Bojanowski
    Zeal 48k 4 August 1955
    In the Far East
    Moored to a buoy alongside a sister ship
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 68593 from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    View the Zeal (MSF-131)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
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    Association of Minemen
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
    © 2006 Joseph M. Radigan © 1996 - 2006 NavSource Naval History. All Rights Reserved.