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Minelayer (CM)
Fleet Minelayer (MMF)
Minelaying Submarine (SM)
Index


Designed for deep water offensive minelaying, all the Navy's Minelayers (CM), with the exception of one, were converted from old cruisers or coastal passenger ships. Some, before or upon commissioning as minelayers, were rerated for other duties. Terror (CM-5) was and still is the Navy's only "built for purpose" minelayer. A primary reason for the lack of surface minelayers in the U.S. Navy was the invention of radar and other search devices, which rendered the surface minelayer exceedingly vulnerable to air, surface and submarine attack.

The Minelaying Submarine was designed to lay minefields in enemy harbors and along enemy coasts without being detected. Only one minelaying submarine was ever built; for her time she was the largest submarine in the Navy. In the early 1950's it was projected to convert Picuda (SS-382) to a SM, but with the advent of more sophisticated torpedoes this plan was never carried out.
Click on ship name to view image(s) and DANFS history.

CM-1 Baltimore ex C-3
CM-2 Tahoe ex San Francisco C-5, renamed Yosemite
CM-3 Aroostook Reclassified AK-44
CM-4 Shawmut Renamed Oglala, Reclassified ARG-1
CM-5 Terror Reclassified MMF-5
CM-6 Catskill Reclassified LSV-1
CM-7 Ozark Reclassified LSV-2
CM-8 Keokuk ex AN-5, Reclassified AKN-4
CM-9 Monadnock Reclassified ACM-10
CM-10 Miantonomah
CM-11 Salem Renamed Shawmut
CM-12 Weehawken
SM-1 Argonaut ex-V-4 Reclassified APS-1
Roanoke

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