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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 (Replaced by one 40mm 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)
    Curlew 119k
    Namesake:

    Curlew - A large bird having long legs and a long, slender, downward-curved bill

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Curlew 174k Curlew (AMS 8) moored inboard of Korean minesweepers Ganggyeong (YMS 510), ex-USS YMS-330 and Ganggye (YMS-506, ex-USS YMS-392 David Wright
    Photo added 28 January 2022
    Curlew 273k 14 June 1951
    Entering port after an extended tour in Korean waters. The little wooden vessel has swept the waters of Wonsan and Chinnampe in North Korea since its arrival in the Far East the previous November
    USN photo 429828 from the National Archives    		 Original photo: Robert Hurst
    Replacement photo: Mike Green
    Defense 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
    AMS-8 75k c. 1953
    Curlew, Mockingbird (AMS 27), Heron (AMS 18), and Gull (AMS 16) nested at Sasebo, Japan    		 Wayne Schafer
    AMS-8 46k c. 1953
    Alongside Heron
    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. The South Koreans present were not pleased that the conflict was ending without a definitive result
    Heron 129k Chinhae, 27 July 1953
    Heron 128k
    USS Curlew (MSC[O] 8)
    Curlew 115k December 1955
    Sasebo, Japan
    Kite (MSC(O) 22), Curlew and Mockingbird (MSC(O) 27), just before departing for Korea and handover to the ROKN    		 Stan Cochran, LTJG, Engineer Officer USS Kite (1955-1956)
    Commanding Officers
    01LT George Sargent Grove, USNNovember 1949 - August 1951
    02LTJG Robert Orr Snure, USNAugust 1951 - August 1952
    03LT Isaac William Metzger, USN - USNA Class of 1947August 1952
    04LT John Anson McCook, USN1953
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Curlew (MSC[O] 8)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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