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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Sturdy (MSO 494)
ex-AM-494



Call sign:
November - Sierra - Hotel - Uniform
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down 15 October 1954 as AM-494 at Boward Marine, Fort Lauderdale Fla.; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-494, 7 February 1955; Launched 28 January 1956; Commissioned USS Sturdy (MSO-494), 23 October 1967; Decommissioned 1 July 1972 at Charleston, SC; Towed to Inactive Ship Facility, Norfolk, VA for storage; Struck from the Navy Register 1 September 1977; Sold for scrap 1 May 1987 by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to C. B. Herter, Jr. of Hopewell, VA for $27,019.

Specifications: Displacement 630 t.(lt), 755 t.(fl); Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 10'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 6 Officers, 74 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, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.

Click on thumbnail
for full size image		 Size Image Description Source
Sturdy 93k - Al Hines
USS Sturdy (MSO-494) Web Site
photo courtesy John L. Love
Sturdy 266k c. 1950/1960 era
Navy Yard Charleston, SC
Swerve (MSO 495), Adroit (MSO 509), Sturdy and an unidentified MSO in Dry Dock No, 2. The destroyer Manley (DD 940) and tank landing ship Tallahatchie County (LST 1154) are in the distance.		 Robert Hall
View the Sturdy (MSO-494)
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
USS Sturdy (MSO 494) Home Page
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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