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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Project (AM 278)



Call sign:
Nan - Peter - Zebra - Peter


Project served the Navies of the United States and the Philippines.
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 1 July 1943 at Gulf Shipbuilding Corp., Chickasaw, AL
  • Launched 20 November 1943
  • Commissioned USS Project (AM 278), 22 August 1944
  • Decommissioned 13 June 1946 at Subic Bay, Philippines
  • Struck from the Navy Register 16 September 1947
  • Transferred to the Philippines 24 May 1948 and renamed RPS Samar (M 33)
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Corvette, PS-33
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 945 t.(fl)
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 9' 9"
  • Speed 14.8 kts.
  • Complement 104
  • Armament: One 3"/50 cal. dual purpose mount, one twin 40mm gun mount, six 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge projector (hedgehogs), 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
    American Ship Building
    110226902    		 263k The Project (AM-278) was built by the Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL, a few miles upstream of the Port of Mobile.
    Here in August 1917, after the United States entered World War I, U.S. Steel established Chickasaw Shipbuilding. The yard closed after World War I but was reopened in 1940 by Waterman Steamship Corp. as Gulf Shipbuilding.     		Insert photos courtesy of catalog.archives.gov & catalog.archives.gov
    Photo courtesy of destroyerhistory.org
    Project 65k Flying Philippine colors but still wearing her U.S. Navy hull number
    Philippine Navy photo    		 Robert Hurst
    Project 49k c. 1956
    Philippine Navy photo from the 1956/1957 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Edgar Samuel Downs, USNR22 August 1944 - 8 March 1945
    02LT Erski William McKinley, USNR8 March 1945 - 1 May 1945
    03LT William Paul Alexander, USNR1 May 1945 - 1 June 1945
    04LT Erski William McKinley, USNR1 June 1945 - 15 August 1945
    05LT William Paul Alexander, USNR15 August 1945
    06LT Kenneth Daniel Dunckel, USNR16 December 1945 - 28 May 1946
    07LCDR William Bartels, USNR28 May 1946 - 13 June 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Project (AM 278)
    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 Minesweeper (AM) Photo Index
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