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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Paul Haaze

Exploit (MSO 440)
ex-AM-440



Call sign:
November - Romeo - Echo - Bravo
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 28 December 1951 at Higgins Inc., New Orleans, LA; Launched, 10 April 1953; Commissioned USS Exploit (AM-440), 31 March 1954 ; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-440, 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 16 December 1993; Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Portsmouth, VA; Struck from the Navy Register 28 March 1994; Sold for scrap 4 December 2000 to Baltimore Marine Industries of Baltimore, MD.

Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement eight officers, 70 enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns, final configuration, bow gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remain; Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesels, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.

Click on thumbnail
for full size image		 Size Image Description Source
Exploit 213k - 102 Minesweeper
Web Site
Dick Lewis
Exploit 50k - .
Exploit/Affray 69k A starboard view of the ocean minesweepers Exploit and Affray (MSO-511) moored at Naval Station Newport, RI. The minesweepers are part of the Naval Reserve Mobilization Forces. The Newport Bridge (renamed Pell Bridge) is in
the background.
U.S. Navy photo DNST8311429 by JO2 Lance Johnson		 Defense Visual Information Center
Exploit 118k U.S. Navy photo Robert M. Cieri
Acadia 87k USS Arcadia (AD 23); Hawkins (DDR 873); McNair (DD 679); Exploit; Bulwark (MSO 425); Aggressive (MSO 422) and Bold (MSO 424).
U.S. Navy photo from the January 1956 edition of All Hands magazine		 Joe Radigan
Exploit 93k U.S. Navy photo from the March 1990 edition of All Hands magazine Joe Radigan
Exploit 47k Awaiting scrapping at Baltimore Marine Industries, Baltimore, MD Save An MSO Web Site
Rick Szpyrka
View the Exploit (MSO-440)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
Navy MSO Association Email Addresses
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
Naval Minewarfare Association
Association of Minemen
Navy MSO Association
Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Ocean Minesweeper (MSO) Photo Index
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