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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Cruise (MSF 215)
ex-AM-215



Call sign:
November - Charlie - Quebec - Bravo
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 7 December 1942 by the Tampa Shipbuilding Co., Tampa, FL
  • Launched 21 March 1943
  • Completed at Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, SC
  • Commissioned USS Cruise (AM 215), 21 September 1945
  • Decommissioned 5 September 1946 at Philadelphia, PA
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists out of commission, in reserve as March 1946
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-215, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1972
  • Sold for scrap 1 March 1973
  • Cruise was not scrapped as reported, but was purchased by Beaufort Fisheries, Inc., Beaufort, NC, converted to a menhaden fisherman and renamed Gregory Poole, official number 558835
  • Sold in 2005 to the Dominion Marine Group of Norfolk, VA
  • Sunk in December 2007 as part of an artificial reef approximately 26 miles southeast of Indian River Inlet, DE and lies an equal distance from Cape May, NJ, Ocean City, MD and Indian River Inlet.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 945 t.(fl)
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 9' 9"
  • Speed 14.8 kts.
  • Complement 104
  • Armament: One twin 40mm gun mount, six 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge projector (hedgehog), four depth charge projectors (K-guns), and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,710shp Cooper Bessemer GSB-8 diesel engines, National Supply Co. single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Cruise (MSF 215)
    Cruise 111k c. October 1974
    Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia, PA
    Moored at the Schuylkill River quay wall in a nest of YO types and barges    		 James Swank
    FV Gregory Poole
    Cruise 122k Richard Davis
    Cruise 148k
    Cruise 161k
    Gregory Poole
    Cruise 44k c. December 2007
    Pictured prior to being sunk as part of an artificial reef    		 Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Stanley Francis Luce, USNR21 September 1945 - December 1945
    02LT Julian R. Webb, Jr., USNRDecember 1945 - March 1946
    03LCDR Joseph Barry Williams, USNRMarch 1946 - 5 September 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Cruise (MSF 215)
    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 created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & Michael Mohl
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