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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Incredible (MSF 249)
ex-AM-249



Call sign:
November - Golf - Hotel - Xray
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 9 September 1943 by the Savannah Machine and Foundry Co., Savannah, GA.
  • Launched 21 November 1943
  • Commissioned USS Incredible (AM-249), 17 April 1944
  • Decommissioned 6 November 1946 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA
  • Placed in service, in reduced commission in July 1947 at Yokosuka, Japan
  • Placed in service, out of commission from 28 November 1947 to 28 September 1949 at Yokosuka
  • Recommissioned 14 August 1950 at Yokosuka
  • Decommissioned 21 September 1954 at Long Beach, CA and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Long Beach Group
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-249, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 December 1959
  • Sold for scrap 8 August 1960 to National Metal and Steel Corp. of Terminal Island, CA.

    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 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
    Incredible 661k Photo by Morper Ship Pictures, San Diego, CA David Buell
    Incredible 125k Commanding Officers of Mine Division Thirty-one in conference off Korea, 26 October 1950. Probably taken in the wardroom of Incredible during minesweeping operations
    off Wonsan

    Those present are (from left to right):
    Lieutenant Edward P. Flynn, Commanding Officer of USS Incredible;
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Nicholas Grkovic, CO of USS Kite (AMS-22);
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Robert C. Fuller, CO of USS Partridge (AMS-31);
    Lieutenant Commander D'Arcy V. Shouldice, Commander, Mine Division 31;
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) T.R. Howard, CO of USS Redhead (AMS-34);
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) James P. McMahon, CO of USS Chatterer (AMS-40);
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Philip Levin, CO of USS Osprey (AMS-28) and
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Stanley P. Gary, CO of USS Mockingbird (AMS-27)
    National Archives photo 80-G-422081

    		 Robert Hurst
    Incredible 80k Flying a "Homeward Bound" pennant, probably upon her departure from Japanese waters in about July 1951
    National Archives photo 80-G-437698    		 Naval Historical Center
    Incredible 117k Probably photographed circa July 1951, while en route to the U.S. following minesweeping service off Korea. Location appears to be Pearl Harbor, with Ford Island Naval Air Station in the background.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 73146
    Incredible 121k Incredible is welcomed by hula dancers as she arrives in Hawaii while en route to the U.S., circa July 1951, following Korean War minesweeping service. Her mine scoreboard is painted on her bridge
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 73685    		 Robert Hurst
    Incredible 76k In dry dock at Yokosuka, Japan
    U.S. Navy photo from the September 1951 edition of All Hands magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Incredible 80k Underway off San Diego, California, circa 1951-53.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 96908    		 Naval Historical Center
    Incredible 294k 10 August 1953 David Buell
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Robert Neville Ekland, USNR17 April 1944 - 29 October 1945
    02LT James Robert McCaffrey, USNR29 October 1945
    03LT Ira Michael Kershner, USNR3 January 1946
    04LTJG William Donald Killian, USNR20 February 1946
    05LT Dale Dennis Shea, USN15 May 1946 - 6 November 1946
    06LCDR Edward Philip Flynn, Jr., USN14 August 1950 - February 1952
    07LT Donald Brace, Jr., USNRFebruary 1952 - September 1952
    08LT George Joseph Abbott, Jr., USNSeptember 1952
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Incredible (MSF-249)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    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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