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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Reedbird (MSC[O] 51)
ex-AMS-51
ex-YMS-291



Call sign:
November - Golf - Tango - Zulu
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • The second Reedbird was laid down 29 January 1943 as YMS-291 by Associated Shipbuilders, Seattle, WA
  • Launched 20 April 1943
  • Completed, delivered and commissioned USS YMS-291, 9 August 1943
  • Decommissioned and placed in service 1 November 1946 at Chicage, IL
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for placing in service as a Naval Reserve training ship in the 9th Naval District (Great Lakes) as September 1947
  • Named Reedbird and reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-51, 1 September 1947
  • Placed out of service in December 1949 at Orange, TX
  • Recommissioned 15 February 1951
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper (Old), MSC(O)-51, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 16 December 1957 at San Diego, CA and placed in service as a Reserve training ship
  • Placed out of service, stripped and struck from the Navy Register 1 October 1968
  • 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 800bhp 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
    YMS-291
    YMS-291 29k . Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    YMS-291 63k c. 1945 Domenic Salamida
    via Tim Traver
    YMS-291 109k c. 1945
    Entering San Francisco Bay    		 Paul Bergstedt, Chief Engineer YMS-291
    via Dirk Nansen
    Reedbird (MSC[O] 51)
    Reedbird 114k c. 1957
    U.S. Navy photo from the April 1962 edition of All Hands magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    02LT Robert Rawson Monroe, USN - Retired as Vice Admiral1954 - 1956
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Reedbird (MSC[O] 51)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway web site
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back To The Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper (YMS) Photo Index Back To The Motor Minesweeper (AMS) Photo Index Back to the Coastal Minesweeper (MSC) Photo Index
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
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