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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Swift (MSF 122)
ex-AM-122



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Delta - November
Auk Class Minesweeper:
  • Built by John H. Mathis Co., Camden, NJ (YN 138)
  • Laid down, 27 June 1942
  • Launched, 05 December 1942
  • Commissioned USS Swift (AM-122), 29 December 1943
  • Placed "in commission, in reserve" at the Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Diego, CA, February 1946
  • Placed "out of commission, in reserve," 04 June 1946
    Naval Vessel Register of 01 January 1949 lists out of commission, in reserve as December 1945
  • Recommissioned, 19 December 1951
  • Reclassified as Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull) MSF-122, 07 February 1955
  • Decommissioned and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, 13 December 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 01 July 1972
  • Final disposition, scrapped
    Specifications:

  • Displacement 890 t.
  • Length 221' 2"
  • Beam 32'
  • Draft 10' 9"
  • Speed 18.1 kts.
  • Complement 105
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 40mm gun mounts, two 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks and five depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 1,766shp General Motors 12-278 diesel electric engines, Farrel-Birmingham reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Swift
    110212206    		 172k Underway off Norfolk Navy Yard, 05 March 1945.
    National Archives photo 19-N-96890    		 Dave Wright
    Swift
    110212203    		 28k Underway, early 1950s. Joe Radigan
    Swift
    110212204    		 96k Underway, early 1950s. From the collection of former crewmember Arthur Wendell Natalie, Jr. Nate Carpenter
    Swift
    110212205    		 NR GETS GOOD CONDUCT STAR
    Frank V. Perry (right), boatswain’s mate third class, USN, is congratulated bv Navy Lt. William A, Simcox after receiving an additional star on his good conduct medal, while serving aboard the auxiliary motor minesweeper, Swift (MSF-122). Perry is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Perry, of Deer Park, and husband of the former Miss Margaret Smith, of Washington, D. C. The Swift is operating in Far Eastern waters with the Pacific Fleet Biockading and Escort Force.    		 Image and text provided by University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
    Text by The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 23 December 1954, Image 14, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
    Swift
    110212201    		 34k c. 1955 John Bates
    Swift
    110212202    		 67k
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Richard Kendall Cockey, USNR29 December 1943 - 31 August 1945
    02LT Vincent de Paul Hurley, USNR31 August 1945 - 20 September 1945
    03LT Dana Kent Law, USNR20 September 1945
    04LTJG Francis F. Peterson, USNR10 February 1946
    05LT Christopher Joseph Casserly, USN19 December 1951 - April 1952
    06LT Robert Barr Smith, USNApril 1952 - 1953
    07LT Willian Arthur Simcox, USN1953
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Swift (MSF 122)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
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    This page was created by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) and maintained by David L. Wright
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    Last Updated 15 October 2023