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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

AM / MSO-438 Esteem


Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down as (AM-438), 1 September 1952 at Martinolich Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, CA,; Launched, 20 December 1952; Redesignated (MSO-438), 7 February 1955; Commissioned USS Esteem (MSO-438), 10 September 1955; Decommissioned and Struck from the Naval Register, 30 September 1991; Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Bremerton Group; Disposed of through the Maritime Administration, 6 March 2000, sold for scrapping to Crowley Marine Services, Long Beach, CA.

Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement eight officers, 70 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, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesels, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
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Esteem 58k October 1955, post-commissioning shakedown off San Diego. Note original MSO configuration with short stack and boom for handling motor whaleboat. In march 1956 Long Beach Naval Shipyard removed boom and installed Wellin davit for launching motor whaleboat. Dick Lewis
102 Minesweepers (MSO)
Oceangoing Minesweepers web site
Courtesy Stan Cochran
Esteem 42k - Dick Lewis
102 Minesweepers (MSO)
Oceangoing Minesweepers web site
Courtesy Ron Schwab, RMCS, USN, Ret.
Esteem 228k Off San Diego, c. mid-1958 Dick Lewis
102 Minesweepers (MSO)
Oceangoing Minesweepers web site
Courtesy Stan Cochran
Esteem 167k - Dick Lewis
102 Minesweepers (MSO)
Oceangoing Minesweepers web site
Courtesy Sam McCrow
Esteem 29k - Dick Lewis
102 Minesweepers (MSO)
Oceangoing Minesweepers web site
Courtesy Ron Schwab, RMCS, USN, Ret.

View the Esteem (MSO-438)
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
USS Esteem (MSO-438)
102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
Naval Minewarfare Association
Association of Minemen
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