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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Al Grazevich


Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Swerve (MSO 495)
ex-AM-495



Call sign:
November - Sierra - Foxtrot - Bravo
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 20 December 1954 as AM-495 at Boward Marine, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-495, 7 February 1955
  • Launched 1 November 1955
  • Commissioned USS Swerve (MSO-495), 27 July 1957
  • Decommissioned 1 July 1971 and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet
  • Sold for scrap 1 February 1978 by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 630 t.(lt), 755 t.(fl)
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 10'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 80
  • Armament: As built, one 40mm gun mount and 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
    Swerve 34k Tom Sparkman
    Sturdy 266k c. 1950/1960 era
    Navy Yard Charleston, SC
    Swerve, Adroit (MSO 509), Sturdy (MSO 494) 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
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Kenneth Howard Eaton, USN27 July 1957 - 21 August 1958
    02LCDR Beverly Saylor, USN21 August 1958 - 15 July 1960
    03LCDR Warren Eugene Pettee, USN15 July 1960 - 26 October 1962
    04LCDR Rodion Cantacuzene, USN - USNA Class of 195226 October 1962 - 1965
    05LCDR Ronald Ray Grove, USN1965 - 1967
    06LCDR Joseph Martin Pickett Wright, Jr., USN1967 - 12 April 1968
    07CDR Thomas Durell Shearer, USN12 April 1968 - 9 May 1968
    08LT/LCDR Charles David Ewing, USN9 May 1968 -22 May 1969
    09LT/LCDR Herbert William Taylor, Jr., USN22 May 1969 - 29 July 1970
    10LCDR James Donald Firnbach, USN29 July 1970 - 1 July 1971
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Swerve (MSO-495)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Websites of Interest
    102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
    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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