Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Illusive (MSO 448)

Call sign:
November - Romeo - Oscar - Yankee

ex-AM-448

Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 23 October 1951 by the Martinolich Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, CA; Launched, 12 July 1952; Commissioned USS Illusive (AM-448), 14 November 1953; Redesignated an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-448, 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 30 March 1990; Struck from the Naval Register, 1 June 1990; Sold for scrapping, 9 February 1993 by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Sea Witch Salvage, Baltimore, MD, for $12,000.

Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 8 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 Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Source
USS Illusive (AM 448)
	114k	Plank owners certificate	John S. Fosberg
USS Illusive (MSO 448)
	27k	-	102 Minesweeper Web Site Dick Lewis
	45k	c. 1963. Cape (MSI 2) outboard of Illusive at San Francisco, CA.	USS Cape (MSI 2) Web Site
	617k	Ocean minesweepers of Mine Division 73 steam together in Pacific. Top to Bottom: Illusive, Conquest (MSO 488), Esteem (MSO 438), Gallant (MSO 489) and Pledge (MSO 492). The sweepers are working out of their home port at Long Beach, CA. U.S. Navy photo from the August 1965 edition of All Hands magazine.	Joe Radigan
	106k	Diver's head toward Illusivein the Persian Gulf, c. fall 1987 Defense Visual Information Center photo DN-SN-88-01078	Joe Radigan
	41k	Illusive off Sitrah, Bahrain, 26 December 1987. USS Conquest (MSO-488) in background. Defense Visual Information Center photo DN-SC-88-03287	Joe Radigan
	40k	Illusive in foreground with Mount Vernon (LSD-39) in background, Persian Gulf, circa 1987-88. U.S. Navy photo	.
	47k	Illusive in foreground with Fearless (MSO 442) and Mount Vernon (LSD-39) in background. Mount Vernon was serving as a support vessel for the minesweepers in the Persian Gulf, 1987-88. US Navy Photo	Darrell G. Miller USS Mount Vernon
Illusive (MSO 448)
	101k	20 September 1993 Illusive at the Sea Witch Marine Salvage Company, Lambart Point, Baltimore, MD Photo by Dan Keller from "Warship Boneyards", by Kitt and Carolyn Bonner.	Robert Hurst
	113k	13 July 1994 Port side view of the ocean minesweeper Illusive at the Sea Witch Marine Salvage Company, Baltimore, MD. The ship is moored off to the side of the aircraft carrier Coral Sea (CV 43) which is also being scrapped out at the yard. Defense Visual Information Center photo DNSC9402523 by Don S. Montgomery	Joe Radigan

View the Illusive (MSO 448)
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

Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster