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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Assurance (AG 521)
ex-MSO-521



Call sign:
November - Romeo - Alpha - Echo
Ability Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 28 January 1957 by Peterson Builders, Inc., Sturgeon Bay, WI
  • Launched, 31 August 1957
  • Commissioned USS Assurance (MSO-521), 21 November 1958 at Boston Naval Shipyard, Charlestown, MA
  • Reclassified as a Miscellaneous Auxiliary, AG-521, 1 March 1973
  • Decommissioned, 30 September 1977 and struck from the Navy Register
  • Sold for scrap 1 July 1978 by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Ampel Wrecking and Dismantling Corp.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 934 t.
  • Length 190'
  • Beam 36'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 15 kts.
  • Complement 83
  • Armament: One 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Two 1,400hp General Motors 8V498 diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Assurance (MSO 521)
    Assurance 61k Photo courtesy Peterson Builders USS Assurance website
    Dick Lewis
    USS Assurance (AG 521)
    Assurance 112k U.S. Navy photo Tom Langford
    Assurance 60k c. 1973
    Seen here as AG-521 a Sonar Research Ship    		 USS Assurance website
    Dick Lewis
    Assurance 343k c. 1973
    Nassau, Bahamas
    Astern of the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2    		 Michael Cosgrove
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Frank Lyons Crump, Jr., USN21 November 1958 - July 1960
    02LCDR Thomas James Porcari, USNJuly 1960 - June 1962
    03CDR James Egerton Myrick, USNJune 1962 - June 1964
    04LCDR John E. Bethany, USNJune 1964 - March 1966
    05LT Norman Patrick Murphy, USNMarch 1966 - July 1968
    06LT Sanford Joe Snuffer, USNJuly 1968 - August 1970
    07LCDR George Roberts Oldhan, USNAugust 1970 - October 1970
    08LT James C. Jacobs, USNOctober 1970 - February 1971
    09LCDR George Roberts Oldham, USNFebruary 1971 - August 1972
    10LCDR Robert Lewis Beauchamp, USNAugust 1972 - July 1974
    11LCDR William Barclay Tirrell, Jr., USNJuly 1974 - October 1976
    12LT Richard Scott Hillyer, USNOctober 1976 - 30 September 1977
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Assurance (MSO-521)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Ocean Minesweeper (MSO) Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Ship Index Back to the Miscellaneous Auxiliary (AG) Photo Index
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Joe Radigan
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