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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

AM / MSF-319 Gladiator



Call sign: November - Charlie - Mike - Echo



Gladiator served the Navies of the United States and Mexico.

Auk Class Minesweeper: Laid down as HMS Blaze (BAM 6) by the General Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Alameda, CA.; Launched, 1 May 1943; Commissioned, 23 February 1944 USS Gladiator (AM-319); Decommissioned, 4 October 1946 at San Diego, CA; Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet; Recommissioned, 29 February 1952 at Long Beach, CA; Reclassified a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel-hulled) (MSF-319), 7 February 1955; Decommissioned, 15 March 1955 at Long Beach, CA; Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Long Beach Group; Struck from the Naval Register, 1 July 1972; Sold to Mexico, 19 September 1972 and renamed Santos Degollado (G 07). Fate unknown. Gladiator received two battle stars for World War II service.

Specifications: Displacement 890 t.; Length 221' 3"; Beam 32'; Draft 10' 9"; Speed 18 kts; Complement 105; Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, two twin 40mm gun mounts, two single 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, five depth charge projectiles; Propulsion two General Motors diesel, two shafts.
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Defense 73k 8 October 1952. Laertes (AR-20) at Sasebo, Japan, with nine minesweepers and a harbor tug alongside. Ships nested from left to right are: Impeccable (AM-320), Gladiator, Shoveler (AM-382), Defense (AM-317), and Devastator (AM-318), Laertes, Condor (AMS-5), Kite (AMS-22), Curlew (AMS-8), Chatterer (AMS-40), and Wallacut (YTB-420).
US Navy photo 80-G-63229.
Now in the collection of the National Archives.
Naval Historical Center
Defense 178k . USS Gladiator (MCM 11) Web Site

View the Gladiator (AM/MSF-319)
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
Naval Minewarfare Association
Association of Minemen
Official Navy Web Site for USS Gladiator (MCM-11)
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