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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Surfbird (ADG 383)
ex-MSF-383
ex-AM-383

Call sign:
November - India - Foxtrot - Echo

Auk Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 15 February 1944 at American Shipbuilding Co., Lorain, OH; Launched, 31 August 1944; Commissioned USS Surfbird (AM-383), 25 November 1944; Decommissioned 5 June 1946 at San Diego, CA; Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet; Recommissioned 14 March 1952 at San Diego; Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-383, 7 February 1955; Reclassified as a Degaussing Ship, ADG-383, 15 June 1957; Decommissioned, 18 December 1970 at Bremerton, WA and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet; Struck from the Navy Register 21 February 1975; Transferred to the Maritime Administration in 1976 for disposal; Sold 5 December 1975 to the Pacific Northwest Salvage Co., Inc. of Seattle, WA; Sold again in December 1975 to Brice Industries of Fairbanks, Alaska and renamed Helenka B which is Sam Brice's deceased wife's name; Sold to Wel-Aska of Valdez, Alaska. She is still operating under the name of Helenka B and it is still running today, after 60 years. She was involved in the March 1989 SS Valdez oil spill clean up.

Specifications: Displacement 890 t.; Length 221' 1"; Beam 32' 2"; Draft 10' 9"; Speed 18.1 kts; Complement 117; Armament one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two single 40mm gun mounts, six single 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge thrower (hedgehogs), four depth charge projectiles (k-guns), two depth charge tracks; Propulsion two 3,532shp General Motors 12-278A diesel electric drive engines, Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
USS Surfbird (AM 383)
	58k	Commissioning photo Camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 1M	Original photo from USS Surfbird (AM-383) website Courtesy Ed Fournier crew member 1944-46 Replacement photo from BMC Richard Miller, USNR, Ret.
	44k	Camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 1M.	Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
	40k	3 May 1945 Camouflage scheme Measure 32 Design 1M	Robert Hurst
	66k	c. 1952 Shortly after being recommissioned Photo courtesy of George Pierce	Don Gillispie, Surfbird Webmaster
USS Surfbird (ADG 383)
	62k	.	USS Surfbird (AM-383) website Courtesy Wes Chapman crew member 1956-59
	80k	.	USS Surfbird (AM-383) website Courtesy Don Gillispie crew member 1960-63
	89k	.	Robert Hurst
	182k	U.S. Navy photo from the March 1963 edition of All Hands magazine	Joe Radigan
M/V Helenka B
	6k	Photo courtesy of her current skipper Bruce Flanigan.	Don Gillispie, Surfbird Webmaster