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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Gwin (MMD 33)


Courtesy of Don McGrogan

ex-Gwin (DM 33)
ex-Gwin (DD 772)



Call sign:
November - Tango - Echo - Bravo


Gwin served the Navies of the United States and Turkey.

Allen M. Sumner Class Destroyer/Robert H. Smith Class Light Minelayer:

  • Laid down 31 October 1943 at Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA as Gwin (DD-772)
  • Launched, 9 April 1944
  • Reclassified as a Light Minelayer, DM-33, 19 July 1944
  • Commissioned USS Gwin (DM-33), 30 September 1944 at Los Angeles, CA
  • Decommissioned, 3 September 1946 at Charleston, SC and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as January 1947
  • Recommissioned 8 July 1952 at Charleston
  • Decommissioned, 3 April 1958 at Philadelphia, PA and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet
  • Reclassified as a Fast Minelayer, MMD-33, 1 January 1969
  • Transferred to Turkey, 15 August 1971 and renamed Muavenet (DM 357)
  • Severely damaged by accidental firing of a Sea Sparrow missile by USS Saratoga (CV-60), 2 October 1992 during NATO Exercise Display Determination 92
  • Struck from the Navy register in 1993
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 2,380 t.(lt) , 3370 t.(fl)
  • Length 376' 6"
  • Beam 40' 10"
  • Draft 18' 10"
  • Speed 34 kts.
  • Complement 363
  • Armament: Three twin 5"/38 dual purpose gun mounts, six twin 40mm gun mounts, eleven 20mm guns, two .50 cal. machine guns, two depth charge tracks and four depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Four Babcock and Wilcox boilers, two General Electric Corp. geared turbines, 60,000shp at 36.5 kts., two shafts, Range 3,300 nm at 20 kts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image
    Size Image Description Source
    LCDR William Gwin, USN
    Gwin 92k
    Namesake:

    Lieutenant Commander William Gwin, USN (1832-1863)
    Engraved portrait by J.C. Buttre, New York, featuring a facsimile of Gwin's signature below the figure.

    William Gwin was born on 6 December 1832 in Columbus, Indiana. He entered U.S. Navy service as a Midshipman in April 1847, subsequently serving in the frigate Brandywine on the Brazil Squadron until late in 1850. During the next five years he was assigned to the sloop of war Germantown, flagship of the African Squadron, the steamer Princeton and the brig Bainbridge. In September 1855, while serving in the latter, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. From late 1857 until after the outbreak of the American Civil War in the spring of 1861, Gwin was an officer of the steamer Saranac and sloop of war Vandalia, both in the Pacific, and of the steam frigate Susquehanna in the Mediterranean. Returning to the United States in mid-1861, Lieutenant Gwin began Civil War combat service in the newly acquired cruiser Cambridge and, later in the year, was assigned to the brig Perry. Early in 1862 he went west to begin a very active period on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, initially as Commanding Officer of the gunboat Tyler, which played a significant role in several combat actions between February and July. Promoted to Lieutenant Commander in July, Gwin commanded the ironclad Mound City during much of the summer and in September took command of the big ironclad Benton. On 27 December 1862, in a heated engagement with Confederate artillery on the Yazoo River, his ship was seriously damaged and Gwin mortally wounded. Lieutenant Commander William Gwin died on 3 January 1863. In reporting his death to the Navy Department, Gwin's squadron commander, Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, remarked: "The country has lost one of its bravest officers."
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 66627

    Bill Gonyo
    Gwin (DM 33)
    Gwin 190k 29 September 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Port side looking to bow. Inclination experiments
    U.S. Navy photo
    Pieter Bakels
    Gwin 280k 29 September 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Port side looking aft. Inclination experiments
    U.S. Navy photo
    USS Gwin (DM 33)
    Gwin 33k Robert Hurst
    Gwin 170k Mark 18, Mod 0 Ground Mine Pieter Bakels
    Gwin 151k Original photo: U.S. Navy photo DD 772-1 DM-33 from the collection of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum
    Replacement photo: c. 1947
    Darryl Baker
    Replacement photo added 28 September 2021
    Gwin 75k Tommy Trampp
    Gwin 203k 11 October 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Inclination experiments
    U.S. Navy photo
    Pieter Bakels
    Gwin 317k 11 October 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Inclination experiments
    U.S. Navy photo
    Gwin 382k 11 October 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Topside completion
    U.S. Navy photo
    Original photo: Pieter Bakels
    Replacement photo: Ed Zajkowski
    Gwin 429k 11 October 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Completion
    U.S. Navy photo
    Gwin 335k 11 October 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Topside bow
    U.S. Navy photo
    Ed Zajkowski
    Gwin 378k 11 October 1944
    Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, CA
    Topside
    U.S. Navy photo
    Gwin 258k Original photo: National Archives photo from the Bureau of Ships collection
    Replacement photo: At San Pedro on 12 October 1944, in camouflage 32/25D. The colors are dull black, ocean gray and light gray
    National Archives photo BS 73147 from the Bureau of Ships collection
    Original photo: Joe Radigan
    Replacement photo: Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    Gwin 204k At San Pedro on 12 October 1944, in camouflage 32/25D. The colors are dull black, ocean gray and light gray
    National Archives photo BS 73148 from the Bureau of Ships collection
    Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    Gwin 115k In shakedown and battery exercises with USS Putnam (DD 757) off the California coast, 6 November 1944
    Photos from George Hansen's USS Putnam collection
    Eric Hansen and John Chiquoine
    Gwin 113k
    Gwin 101k
    Gwin 62k U.S. Navy photo from the February 1957 edition of All Hands magazine Joe Radigan
    Gwin 111k Gwin is identifiable in the westernmost nest in the Philadelphia Reserve Fleet Reserve Basin in 1962. Obscured to her starboard are Schroeder [DD 501], Sigsbee [DD 502], and Lindsey [DM 32]. None will get to sea again
    Photo from Wirephoto in the Temple Digital Library
    John Chiquoine

    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Frederick Samuel Steinke, USN - USNA Class of 1931
    Awarded the Silver Star (1945) and the Legion of Merit (1945)
    30 September 1944 - 23 September 1945
    02CDR Elmer Cecil Long, USN - USNA Class of 1933
    Retired as Captain
    23 September 1945 - 3 September 1946
    03CDR Ray E. Oliver, USN - USNA Class of 19418 July 1952
    04CDR William Edgar Benbow, USN - USNA Class of 1940
    Awarded the Legion of Merit (1965)
    1954
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan

    View the Gwin (MMD 33)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Websites of Interest
    NavSource Destroyer Pages, USS Gwin (DD-772)
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Destroyer (DD) Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Fast Minelayer (MMD) Photo Index

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