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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Shelter (MSF 301)
ex-AM-301



Call sign:
November - Quebec - Tango - Quebec


Shelter served the Navies of the United States, South Vietnam and the Philippines.
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 16 August 1943 by the Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding Co., Winslow, WA
  • Launched 14 November 1943
  • Commissioned USS Shelter (AM 301), 9 July 1944
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as December 1945
  • Decommissioned 7 June 1946 at Orange, TX
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-301, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 August 1963
  • Transferred to South Vietnam 24 January 1964 and renamed RVN Chi Linh (HQ 11)
  • Escaped to the Philippines in the spring of 1975 after the fall of South Vietnam
  • Renamed RPS Datu Tupas (PS 18)
  • 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 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
    Shelter 84k . Paul Pixley
    Shelter 63k
    Strategy 427k Moored outboard of Strategy (AM 308) with Signet (AM 302) moored astern. Other minesweepers are in the background
    From the collection of Thomas Jordan Cook, crewmember 1945 - 1946    		 Kurt Cook
    Shelter 528k Shelter's Track from commissioning 9 July 1944 at Winslow, WA
    to decommissioning 7 June 1946 at Orange, TX.    		 Paul Pixley
    View the Shelter (MSF 301)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
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