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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive


Courtesy of Al Grazevich

Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Conquest (MSO 488)
ex-AM-488



Call sign:
November - Tango - Alpha - Whiskey


Conquest served the Navies of the United States and the Republic of China

Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 26 March 1953 as AM-488 by the J. L. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp., Tacoma, Washington
  • Launched 20 May 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-488, 7 February 1955
  • Commissioned USS Conquest (MSO-488), 20 July 1955
  • Decommissioned 29 June 1994 and struck from the Navy Register
  • Sold to Taiwan 1 March 1995 through the Security Assistance Program for $742,779 and renamed Yung Tzu (MSO 1307)
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 775 t.
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 78
  • Armament: As built, one 40mm gun mount and two .30 cal. machine guns; Final configuration, two .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image
    Size Image Description Source
    Conquest (MSO 488)
    Conquest 49k 28 June 1955
    Running acceptance trials
    J. L. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp.
    Conquest 35k
    USS Conquest (MSO 488)
    Conquest 180k . 102 Minesweeper
    Website
    Dick Lewis
    Conquest 102k . Tom Lawson
    Conquest 105k Color version of above photo
    Photo by LT George Ross, USN
    Conquest 54k . B. C. Young
    Conquest 76k U.S. Navy photo. David Buell
    MINDIV 72 617k Ocean minesweepers of Mine Division 73 steam together in Pacific. Top to Bottom: Illusive (MSO 448), Conquest, 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
    Conquest 98k Ed Zajkowski
    Conquest 186k Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Conquest 282k Overhead port view of Conquest underway c. 1959
    National Archives photo USN 1046396
    Mike Green
    Conquest 288k 8 August 1960
    Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Photo by Walter E. Frost from City of Vancouver Archives
    Michael Mohl
    Conquest 302k c. February/March 1973
    Carrying a diesel fuel bladder in transit to WestPac to increase her range
    Michael Cosgrove
    Esteem 130k c. 1978
    Pier 90, Seattle, WA
    USS Esteem (MSO 438), Conquest, USS Implicit (MSO 455), USS Higbee (DD 806), USS McKean (DD 784) and inboard of the DD's is USS Hector (AR 7)
    Dave Hood, GMT2
    Conquest 153k Cover of the May 1983 edition of Sea Classics magazine Tommy Trampp
    Conquest 391k 1 April 1988
    A crewman monitors a mine detection and classification console in the Persian Gulf
    U.S. Navy photo DN-ST-89-03190 by PH2 Mike Harnar, USN
    Bill Gonyo
    Esteem 102k c. fall 1989
    Esteem (MSO 438), Conquest and Enhance (MSO 437) inport at Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain towards the end of Operation Earnest Will
    Tom Womble, LCDR, USNR
    Enhance 52k c. Winter 1989.
    Enhance (MSO 437) and Conquest at Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain
    MSO-437/438/488 78k c. November 1989.
    Esteem (MSO 438), Enhance (MSO 437) and Conquest in the Arabian Gulf
    MSO-437/438/488 75k c. April 1990.
    Esteem, Enhance and Conquest return to Seattle aboard the Super Servant 3 from the Arabian gulf. This apparently was the first multiship lift for the Navy.
    MSO-437/438/488 63k
    Conquest 375k 6 May 1991
    Columbia River
    Photo by Rick Garcia
    Chris Howell
    Conquest 42k Entering Seattle in the summer of 1992. Photo taken from the USS Cape Cod (AD 43). Lee Noland, STGC(SW), USN, Ret.
    Yung Tzu (MSO 1307)
    Yung Tzu 44k . Chinese Navy
    M-1307/M-1308 61k Yung Ku (MSO 1308), ex-Gallant (MSO 489) and Yung Tzu
    M-1307/M-1308 33k c. 1997
    Yung Tzu and Yung Ku
    Conquest 121k May 2007
    Keelung, Taiwan
    Perry Huang
    Conquest 161k
    Conquest 140k
    Conquest 126k
    Conquest 118k
    Conquest 118k
    Conquest 127k
    Conquest 150k May 2007
    Keelung, Taiwan
    Her original name, "Conquest" can still be seen on Yung Tzu's stern

    Commanding Officers
    01LT Elbert Leon Davis, USN20 July 1955 - 1 December 1956
    02LT/LCDR Stansfield Turner, USN - USNA Class of 1947
    Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, three Legions of Merit, the Bronze Star with Combat V, the Joint Services Commendation Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V - Retired as Admiral
    Director of Central Intelligence Agency 9 March 1977 - 20 January 1981
    1 December 1956 - 24 June 1958
    03LT/LCDR Russell Franklin Wilson, USN - USNA Class of 194924 June 1958 - 5 July 1960
    04LCDR Carl Jack Costanzo, USN5 July 1960 - 11 July 1962
    05CDR James Joseph "Jim" Strohm, USN - USNA Class of 195111 July 1962 - 4 December 1964
    06LT/LCDR Donald Martin, USN - USNA Class of 19554 December 1964 - 2 June 1966
    07LT/LCDR Wayne Milton Holmes, USN2 June 1966 - 26 April 1968
    08LCDR William Henry Kersting, USN26 April 1968 - 5 November 1969
    09LT/LCDR Arthur Earl Rowe, Jr., USN5 November 1969 - 30 October 1970 (Decommissioned)
    10LCDR Denis Nickolas Tsukalas, USN21 October 1971 (Recommissioned) - 12 December 1972
    11LCDR John Richard Heufelder, USN12 December 1972 - 19 May 1974
    12LCDR Douglas Earl Ward, USN19 May 1974 - June 1976
    13LCDR David James Klick, USNJune 1976 - 11 August 1978
    14CDR Paul Albert Thorsen, USN - USNA Class of 196511 August 1978 - April 1981
    15CDR Charles Lawrence Stout, Jr., USNApril 1981 - April 1982
    16CDR James Robert "Jimmie" Jackson, USNApril 1982 - December 1984
    17CDR Le Roy Windsor Chapple, USNDecember 1984 - 7 March 1987
    18CDR James Edgar Keys, Jr., USN7 March 1987 - December 1987
    19CDR Charles George Belcher, USNDecember 1987 - April 1988
    20LCDR Theodore Lawrence Kaye, USN - USNA Class of 197225 April 1988 - 23 August 1988
    21CDR Steven Paul Johnson, USN23 August 1988 - February 1989
    22CDR Duncan K. Forbes, USNFebruary 1989 - July 1989
    23CDR Steven William Nerheim, USN1989
    24CDR Paul Eugene Stanton, USNMarch 1990 - 13 July 1990
    25LCDR Nelson Marzan Cayabyab, USN - USNA Class of 197813 July 1990 - 4 February 1992
    26LCDR Phillip Tim Swanson, USN4 February 1992 - 9 October 1992
    27LCDR Timothy James Howington, USN9 October 1992 - 29 June 1994
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves, Peter M. Leenhouts, Bill Gonyo and Joe Radigan

    View the Conquest (MSO-488)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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