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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Harkness (MHC 12)
ex-AMCU-12

AMCU-12 call sign:
November - Charlie - Whiskey - Bravo

ex-AGSC-12
ex-AGS-12
ex-YMS-242

Coastal Minehunter:

Laid down 1 June 1942 by the Tacoma Boat Building Co., Tacoma, WA

Launched 10 October 1942

Completed and commissioned USS YMS-242, 27 March 1943

Converted to a Survey Ship, AGS-12, 20 March 1945 at South Coast Shipbuilding Co., Newport Beach, CA

Named Harkness 24 March 1945

Reclassified as a Coastal Survey Ship, AGSC-12, 29 July 1946

Decommissioned 22 September 1950 at New York

Converted to a Coastal Minesweeper (Underwater Locator), AMCU-12, 18 August 1951 at New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, NY

Recommissioned 5 September 1951

Reclassified as a Coastal Minehunter, MHC-12, 1 February 1955

Decommissioned 2 April 1958 at Green Cove Springs, FL

Struck from the Naval Register 1 November 1959

Sold at public auction in 1960

Fate unknown.

Specifications:

Displacement 340 t.

Length 136'

Beam 23' 4"

Draft 8' 7"

Speed 14 kts.

Complement 60 (AMCU-12 complement 34)

Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts, two depth charge tracks and two depth charge projectors - (AMCU-12 armament one 40 mm mount)

Propulsion: Two 1,000bhp 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 Harkness (AGS 12)
	38k	William Harkness (December 17, 1837 – February 28, 1903) was an astronomer, born at Ecclefechan, Scotland on December 17, 1837, a son of James Harkness (1803–78). He was educated at Lafayette College (1854–56), graduated from the University of Rochester (1858), and studied medicine in New York City. He served as a surgeon in the Union armies during part of the American Civil War. From 1862 to 1865 he was an aid in the United States Naval Observatory and then, after service on the monitor Monadnock {1}(1865–66), was employed in the Hydrographic Office. During the eclipse of August, 1869, Harkness discovered the coronal line K 1474. Three years later he was made a member of the Transit of Venus Commission, had charge of the party at Hobart, Tasmania, in 1879, and at Washington in 1882, when he became the executive officer. His most memorable accomplishments are related to the construction of telescopes, his theory of the focal curve of achromatic telescopes, and on his invention of the spherometer caliper, and other astronomical instruments. He was astronomical director of the Naval Observatory (1894–99) and director of the Nautical Almanac (1897–99). He retired two days after attaining the relative rank of rear admiral (December, 1899). He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1893). Of his works, The Solar Parallax and its Related Constants (1891) is the most important. Harkness died in Jersey City on February 28, 1903 at the age of 66 Photo from the May 1903 edition of Popular Science magazine	Bill Gonyo
	128k	c. 1946 Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 84646 from Shipscribe.com	Original photo: Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
	107k	In foreground at the Brooklyn Navy Yard is Simon Newcomb (AGS 14), Harkness, and James M. Gilliss (AGS 13). Astern is the "mother ship" Tanner (AGS 15). LST-664 is moored at another pier inboard of an unidentified LST.	George W. Desharnais
	81k	Conducting underway replenishment operations Photo from Shipscribe website	Mike Green
USS Harkness (AMCU 12)
	196k	U.S. Navy photo from "Our Navy" magazine	Arthur Gendreau
	94k	Panama City, FL Undergoing underwater explosive tests
	111k	Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA Fuel Oil Barge YO-224 to port with Pigeon (AM 374) astern
	103k	Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA Fuel Oil Barge YO-224 to port
	207k	Off Norfolk, VA
	134k	Little Creek, VA
	157k	Off Little Creek, VA
	101k	Marine Railway, St. Helena Annex, Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA
	147k		Original photo: Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret. Replacement photo: Tommy Trampp