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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

AM / MSO-437 Enhance


Contributed by Mike Smolinski



Call sign: November - Bravo - November - Mike

Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 12 July 1952 as Enhance (AM-437) at Maritinolich Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, CA; Launched, 11 October 1952; Redesignated an Ocean Minesweeper MSO-437, 7 February 1955; Commissioned USS Enhance (MSO-437), 16 April 1955; Decommissioned, 31 December 1991; Struck from the Naval Register, 21 February 1992; Disposed of through the Maritime Commission, 6 March 2000 to Crowley Marine Services, Long Beach, CA for scrapping.

Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 8 Officers, 70 Enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal machine guns, final configuration, bow gun removed, two .50 cal. machine guns remain; Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesels, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
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Size Image Description Source
Enhance 37k - 102 Minesweepers (MSO)
Oceangoing Minesweepers web site
Enhance 83k c. 1973.
Enhance on fire. Photo taken from USS Pluck (MSO 464).
Mike Prager
Esteem 102k c. fall 1989.
Esteem (MSO 438), Conquest (MSO 488) and Enhance (astern of Esteem) inport at Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain towards the end of Operation Earnest Will.
Tom Womble,
LCDR, USNR
Enhance 52k c. Winter 1989.
Enhance and Conquest (MSO 488) at Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain
Tom Womble,
LCDR, USNR
MSO-437/438/488 78k c. November 1989.
Esteem (MSO 438), Enhance and Conquest (MSO 488) in the Arabian Gulf
Tom Womble,
LCDR, USNR
MSO-437/438/488 75k c. April 1990.
Esteem, Enhance and Conquest return to Seattle aboard the Super Servant 3 from the Arabian gulf. This apparently was the first multiship lift for the Navy.
Tom Womble,
LCDR, USNR
MSO-437/438/488 63k c. April 1990.
Esteem, Enhance and Conquest return to Seattle aboard the Super Servant 3 from the Arabian gulf.
Tom Womble,
LCDR, USNR

View the Enhance (MSO-437)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site. The main archive for the DANFS Online Project.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S.Navy Memorial Foundation
Fleet Reserve Association
Navy MSO Association Email Addresses
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
Naval Minewarfare Association
Association of Minemen
Navy MSO Association

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