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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

YMS-231 / AMS-10 / MSC(O)-10 Firecrest


Firecrest served the Navies of the United States and Japan.

YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Mine Sweeper: Laid down at Boothbay Harbor, Maine; Commissioned USS YMS-231, August 1943. Following service in World War II, she was placed out of commission in February 1947; YMS-231 was reclassified a Motor Minesweeper AMS and renamed Firecrest (AMS-10), 17 February 1947. Firecrest returned to service in the later 1940s. She was sent to Korea in 1950 and operated in the combat zone until the shooting ended in July 1953. Firecrest continued to serve the Far East after the war. In February 1955, she was reclassified as a coastal minesweeper and redesignated Coastal Mine Sweeper, (Old) MSC(O)-10. A month later, Firecrest was loaned to Japan. She served as the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweeper Eta Jima until returned to the US in 1967. Firecrest was subsequently struck from the Naval Register; Final Disposition, disposed of as a target August 1968.

Specifications: Displacement 270 t.; Length 136'; Beam 24' 6"; Draft 8'; Speed 15 kts; Complement 32; Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, two 20mm, two dcp; Propulsion diesel.
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Size Image Description Source
Firecrest 89k Firecrest in a Japanese port, 3 September 1952.
US Navy photo NH 96992
Naval Historical Center
Firecrest 76k Korea. c. 1953 Wayne Schafer
Heron 48k Heron (AMS 18) and Firecrest in dry dock at Yokosuka, Japan. March 1953. Wayne Schafer
AMS-5 Condor/LST-735 Dukes County 88k Dukes County (LST 735) serving as mother ship for seven minesweepers, probably in a Japanese port, circa 1952-54. Ships nested alongside are:
Gull (AMS-16);
Firecrest (AMS-10);
Condor (AMS-5);
Merganser (AMS-26);
Osprey (AMS-28);
Competent (AM-316);, and
Chief (AM-315).
US Navy photo NH 68589 Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute, James C. Fahey Collection.
Naval Historical Center

View the Firecrest (AMS-10)
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
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