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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Woodpecker (MSC 209)
ex-AMS-209


Woodpecker served the Navies of the United States and the Republic of Fiji.
Redwing Class Motor Minesweeper: Laid down, 23 June 1954 as AMS-209 at Bellingham Shipyards, Inc., Bellingham, WA; Launched, 7 January 1955; Redesignated as a Coastal Minesweeper, MSC-209, 7 February 1955; Commissioned, USS Woodpecker (MSC 209), 3 February 1956; Decommissioned, 15 December 1970 at Seattle, WA and converted to a Naval Reserve Training Ship; Struck from the Navy Register 1 July 1976 and sold to the Republic of Fiji as HMFS Kikau (MSC 204); Sunk as an artificial reef in 1990.

Specifications: Displacement 320 t.; Length 144'; Beam 28'; Draft 9'; Speed 13 kts; Complement 50; Armament one 40 mm gun mount; Propulsion two 880 shp General Motors diesel engines, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail
for full size image		 Size Image Description Source
USS Woodpecker (MSC 209)
Woodpecker 89k Drydocked at Yokosuka, Japan
Photo by ENS Max E. Harksen		 USS Woodpecker (MSC 209) Web Site
Woodpecker 79k . USS Woodpecker (MSC 209) Web Site
Woodpecker 61k Sweeping
Photo by CAPT Frederick Reeg		 USS Woodpecker (MSC 209) Web Site
Woodpecker 69k Alongside starboard quarter of Jason (AR 8) off the coast of Vietnam.
U.S. Navy photo by PH3 R. L. Yager from the January 1969 edition of All Hands magazine		 Joe Radigan
HMFS Kikua (MSC 204)
Warbler 91k 23 January 1986
Right to left, the Fijian navy ships HMFS's Kiro[MSC 206], ex-Warbler (MSC 206); Kikau and
Kula [MSC 205], ex-Vireo (MSC 205) at Suva navy base, on a very foggy morning.		 Ray Smith
View the Woodpecker (MSC 209) DANFS History
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