Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Pirate (AM-275)

Call sign:
Nan - Peter - Xray - Love

Sunk 12 October 1950

Admirable Class Minesweeper:

Laid down 1 July 1943 by Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL

Launched 16 December 1943

Commissioned 16 June 1944

Decommissioned 6 November 1946 at Bremerton, Washington

Assigned to Service Force, Pacific Fleet in December 1947 in Japanese waters in caretaker status, out of service, in reserve

Recommissioned 14 August 1950 at Yokosuka, Japan

Sunk by mine 12 October 1950 off Pusan, Korea.

Specifications:

Displacement 945 t.(fl)

Length 184' 6"

Beam 33'

Draft 9' 9"

Speed 14.8 kts.

Complement 104

Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, one twin 40mm gun mount, six single 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge thrower (hedgehogs), four depth charge projectors (K-guns) and two depth

charge tracks

Propulsion: Two 855shp Cooper Bessemer GSB-8 diesel engines, National Supply Co. single reduction gear, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
110226902	263k	The Pirate (AM-275) was built by the Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL, a few miles upstream of the Port of Mobile. Here in August 1917, after the United States entered World War I, U.S. Steel established Chickasaw Shipbuilding. The yard closed after World War I but was reopened in 1940 by Waterman Steamship Corp. as Gulf Shipbuilding.	Insert photos courtesy of catalog.archives.gov & catalog.archives.gov Photo courtesy of destroyerhistory.org
	31k		USS Pivot Website and Lucy Howell
	60k		Hyperwar U.S. Navy in WWII
	31k		.
	11k	Pirate in foreground and USS Pledge (AM-277) underway U.S. Navy photo taken from USS Pivot (AM-276)	Robert Hurst
	249k	Painting by Richard DeRosset titled "Hidden Menace at Sin-Do Island," used in the book Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The U.S. Navy's Coastal & Motor Minesweepers, 1941-1953 by David Bruhn. Pledge (AM-277), which thereafter also suffered a mine strike and was sunk, is shown in the background	Original photo: David Bruhn Replacement photo: Bill Gonyo
110227512	NR	Chevy Chase Ensign, Survivor Of Sunken Ship, on Way Home Ensign John J. Ekelund, grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew C. Buscher, 4815 Wellington drive, Chevy Chase., was among more than 80 survivors of the sunken minesweepers Pirate (AM-275), Pledge(AM-277) and Magpie (AMS-25)..... Ensign Ekelund estimated there were more than 1.000 mines in the area of Wonsan Harbor when his ship, the *Pirate*, was sunk 12 October. Some mines were strung between several small islands in the harbor, he recalled....	Image and text provided by Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Text by Evening Star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 12 November 1950, Image 27, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.

Commanding Officers
01	LCDR Gilbert Louis Leindecker, USNR	16 June 1944 - 11 October 1945
02	LT John Claude Kettenring, USNR	11 October 1945
03	LT Charles Lyman Rich, USNR	10 November 1945
04	LCDR Frederick John Priddle, USNR	4 February 1946
05	LT Hendrick William Trugo Nyland, USN	15 August 1946
06	LT William Odell Talley, USN - Officer-in-Charge	2 December 1947
07	LT Elvie Robert Burd, USN - Officer-in-Charge	2 April 1948
08	LT Cornelius Emmett McMullen, USN	14 August 1950 - 12 October 1950

Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody

View the Pirate (AM-275)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website

Photos of the sinking of USS Pirate (AM-275), 12 October 1950

To Images

Back To The Main Photo Index

Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index

Back to the Minesweeper (AM) Photo Index

Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster