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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

AM / MSO-474 Vital

Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down, 31 October 1952 as AM-474 at Burger Boat Co., Manitowoc, Wisc.; Launched, 12 August 1953; Redesignated an Ocean Minesweeper MSO-474, 7 February 1955; Commissioned USS Vital (MSO-474), 9 June 1955 at Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, MA; Decommissioned, 22 September 1972; Struck from the Naval Register, September 1977; Sold for scrapping, 21 July 1979 by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Union Minerals and Alloys Corp., New York, NY for $25,250.

Specifications: Displacement 630 t.(lt), 755 t.(fl); Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 10'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 6 Officers, 74 Enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal machine guns, final configuration, bow gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remain; Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
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For Full Size Image
Size Image Description Source
Vital 132k c. 1955 USS Vital Web site
Vital 86k Valetta, Malta. c. 1960 Anthony Vella
Senglea, Malta

View the Vital (MSO-474)
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

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
A Salute to the USS VITAL (MSO-474)
102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
Naval Minewarfare Association
Association of Minemen
Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Minesweeper (AM / MSO) Photo Index

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