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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Strength (MSF 309)
ex-AM-309



November - Quebec - Xray - Zulu
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 4 October 1943 by Associated Shipbuilders, Seattle, WA
  • Launched 28 March 1944
  • Commissioned USS Strength (AM 309), 30 September 1944
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as December 1945
  • Decommissioned 19 July 1946 at Orange, TX
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-309, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 April 1967
  • Used as a training hulk at the U.S. Navy Diving and Salvage School, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC in the late 1960s
  • Sunk in 1987 as part of an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Panama City, FL at 30° 01.960' N, 85° 42.554 W.

    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
    USS Strength (AM 309)
    Strength 310k Ray Germany
    Training Hulk Strength
    Strength 80k Oxon Hill Run Cove, Oxon Hill, MD
    The Strength slowly comes up from the mud
    U.S. Navy photo from the September 1969 edition of All Hands magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Strength
    Strength 25k Photo from Panama City Diving Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 7 March 2021
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR William D. White, USNR30 September 1944
    02LT Robert John Lyman, USNR16 November 1945
    03LTJG John Charles McLeod, USNR24 January 1946
    04LTJG Grant Eric Nelson, USNR15 April 1946
    05ENS James William Whit, USNR17 May 1946
    06LT George Paul Hoenninger, USNR10 June 1946 - 19 July 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Strength (MSF 309)
    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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