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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Gayety (MSF 239)
ex-AM-239

Call sign:
November - Foxtrot - Lima - Yankee



Gayety served the Navies of the United States, South Vietnam and the Philippines

Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 14 November 1943 at Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding, Winslow, Washington
  • Launched 19 March 1944
  • Commissioned USS Gayety (AM 239), 23 September 1945
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as December 1945
  • Decommissioned 1 March 1954 at Orange, TX
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-239, 7 February 1955
  • Transferred to South Vietnam 17 April 1962 and renamed Chi Lang II (HQ 08)
  • Escaped to the Philippines in 1975 after the fall of South Vietnam
  • Renamed RPS Magat Salamat (PS 20)
  • Decommissioned 10 December 2021.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 945 t.(fl)
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 9' 9"
  • Speed 14.8 kts.
  • Complement 104
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, 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 855shp 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
    USS Gayety (AM 239)
    Gayety 62k
    Namesake:

    Gayety - Merriment or jollity

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 20 February 2022
    Gayety 227k Photo from the collection of Michael Collins, YMS-271 James Collins
    Gayety 135k Original photo: 3 January 1945
    Replacement photo: Wearing camouflage 32/22D at San Pedro, CA on 26 December 1944
    National Archives photo BS 76560 from the Bureau of Ships collection    		 Original photo: Robert Hurst
    Replacement photo: Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    Gayety 158k Wearing camouflage 32/22D at San Pedro, CA on 26 December 1944
    National Archives photos BS 76568 and BS 76569 from the Bureau of Ships collection    		 Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    Gayety 187k
    RVN Chi Lang II (HQ 08)
    Gayety 102k
    Namesake:

    Chi Lang Passage, a narrow valley between the Bao Dai mountain range in the east and the Cai Kinh range in the west in the northern province

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 20 February 2022
    Chi Lang II/Gayety 172k c. 1960's
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 93779    		 Mike Green
    Chi Lang II 42k c. 1962
    Vietnamese Navy photo    		 Jane's Fighting Ships
    Gayety 160k 9 April 1968
    Chi Lang II, positions herself in the South China Sea to shell the beach during an assault and beach survey to be conducted by U.S. and Vietnamese Naval unit on Peninsula ten miles North of Nha Trang
    National Archives photo K-47929 by PH1 L. R. Robinson, USN    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Gayety 218k 31 May 1975
    Subic Bay, Philippines
    Former South Vietnamese and Cambodian Navy ships tied up at buoy No. 1, after bringing in refugees. They are (l-r): Vietnamese ships:
    HQ-471, ex-YOG-33; Dong Da II (HQ 07), ex-Crestview (PCE 895); Chi Lang II; Chi Linh (HQ 11), ex-Shelter (MSF 301); Cambodian Ships: P-112, E-312, ex-PC-1171
    National Archives photo K-109092
    RPS Magat Salamat (PS 20)
    Gayety 49k
    Namesake:

    Rajah Salamat (? - 1610), better known by his previous noble rank, Magat Salamat, also known in Kapampangan sources as Lakan Magat Salamat and in Malay and Old Malay sources as Pemagat Selamat was the paramount ruler of Tondo from 1603 to 1607

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 20 February 2022
    Magat Salamat/Gayety 34k Philippine Navy Photo Philippine Navy
    Gayety 64k 13 May 2011
    Makar Port, General Santos City, Mindanao, Philippines
    From the collection of Mike Baylon    		 Edison Sy
    Gayety 64k 17 January 2014
    Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines
    Tied up pierside at Davao City, while delivering aid items to Davao Oriental Province
    Photo by Ensign Herlijk F. Gregorio, PN    		 Robert Hurst
    Gayety 89k 10 December 2021
    The Philippine Navy decommissions BRP Miguel Malvar (PS-19), ex-Brattleboro (PCE 852) and BRP Magat Salamat (PS-20) after being in the Philippine Navy service for 44 years
    Philippine Navy photo    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photos added 20 February 2022
    Gayety 85k
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR John Francis Rowe, USNR - Awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat V (1951)23 September 1945
    02LT Arch Kevin Moseley, USNR13 November 1945
    03LT Thomas Franklin Booker, USN - USNA Class of 194611 May 1951
    ??LT Robert Bruce Harrell, USNR
    ??LT Robert Henry Crowe, USNR
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves, R. A. Moody and Joe Radigan
    View the Gayety (MSF 239)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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