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

Curlew (MSC[O] 8)
ex-AMS-8
ex-YMS-218

Call sign:
November - Charlie - Golf - Uniform

Curlew served the Navies of the United States and the Republic of Korea.

YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

Laid down 18 July 1942 by the J. N. Martinac Ship Building Co., Tacoma, Washington

Launched 23 December 1942

Completed and commissioned USS YMS-218, 23 June 1943

She served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during World War II, and took part in occupation activities in late 1945 and early 1946

Decommissioned in February 1947 at San Diego, CA

Reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-8 and named Curlew, 18 February 1947

Recommissioned in June 1949 and sent to the Western Pacific a year later to support Korean War operations

During most of that conflict, she was active in the combat zone, performing mine clearance and blockade missions

Reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper (Old), MSC(O)-8, 7 February 1955

Transferred to South Korea 6 January 1956 and renamed Kum Hwa (MSCO 519)

Struck from the Naval Register 15 November 1974

Discarded about 1977.

Specifications:

Displacement 270 t.

Length 136'

Beam 24' 6"

Draft 8'

Speed 15 kts.

Complement 32

Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts, and two depth charge projectors

Propulsion: Two 880bhp General Motors 8-268A diesel engines, Snow and Knobstedt single reduction gear, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
USS Curlew (AMS 8)
	77k	c. 1952	Robert Hurst
	73k	8 October 1952. Laertes (AR-20) at Sasebo, Japan with nine minesweepers and a harbor tug alongside. Ships nested to starboard of Laertes are (from left): Impeccable (AM-320); Gladiator (AM-319); Shoveler (AM-382); Defense (AM-317), and Devastator (AM-318). Those nested to port are (from left): Condor (AMS-5); Kite (AMS-22); Curlew; Chatterer (AMS-40), and Wallacut (YTB-420) National Archives photo 80-G-63229	Naval Historical Center
	75k	c. 1953 Curlew, Mockingbird (AMS 27), Heron (AMS 18), and Gull (AMS 16) nested at Sasebo, Japan.	Wayne Schafer
	69k	c. 1953 Approaching Heron to port.
	46k	c. 1953 Alongside Heron.
	134k	Officers of the Heron and Curlew at the South Korean Naval Base at Chinhae, 27 July 1953. The occasion was a courtesy visit by the Heron and the Curlew. The date was significant because it was the date of the signing of the armistice agreement at Panmunjom ending the Korean War. The South Koreans present were not pleased that the conflict was ending without a definitive result.
	129k	Chinhae, 27 July 1953.
	128k	Chinhae, 27 July 1953.
	116k	U.S. Navy photo from the February 1955 edition of All Hands magazine	Joe Radigan
USS Curlew (MSC[O] 8)
	115k	December 1955 Sasebo, Japan Kite (MSC(O) 22), Curlew and Mockingbird (MSC(O) 27), just before parting for Korea and handover to the ROKN.	Stan Cochran, LTJG Engineer Officer USS Kite (1955-1956)