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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

HMS BYMS-2203
ex-HMS J-1003
ex-YMS-203


BYMS-2203 served only in the Royal Navy.
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 15 January 1942 as YMS-203 by the Hiltebrant Dock Co., Kingston, NY
  • Launched 15 January 1943
  • Completed 31 August 1943, transferred to the Royal Navy and reclassified HMS J-1003
  • Reclassified HMS BYMS-2203
  • She sailed from the United Kingdom to Malta as a part of Convoy KMS 43 on 11 December 1943, and at least for a time, she served in the Pacific. On 10 June 1944 she took assisted USS Bangust (DE-739) who had already
    attacked a submarine target 60 miles off Roi, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. BYMS-2203 assisted USS Greiner (DE 37), USS SC-1364, and HMS BYMS-2282 in searching for Japanese submarine RO-111, even
    though, unknown at the time, Bangust’s attack had already been successful.
  • Returned to U. S. custody 12 November 1946
  • Struck from the Naval Register 13 December 1946
  • Transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in October 1947
  • Fate unknown.

    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
    HMS J-1003
    BYMS-2203 140k On builders trials Tommy Trampp
    BYMS-2203 123k
    BYMS-2203 92k
    HMS BYMS-2203
    BYMS-2203 99k Somewhere in the Pacific. Mick Belton
    BYMS-2203 85k
    There is no DANFS History currently available for YMS-203
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
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