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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Raven (MSF 55)
ex-AM-55



Call sign:
November - Echo - Delta - Quebec
Raven Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 28 June 1939 at Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA
  • Launched 24 August 1940
  • Commissioned USS Raven (AM 55), 11 November 1940
  • Decommissioned 31 May 1946 and place in reserve at San Diego, CA
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists decommissioning and placed in reserve date as December 1945
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hulled), MSF-55, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 May 1967
  • Sunk as a target off southern California in 1967.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 810 t.
  • Length 220' 6"
  • Beam 32' 2"
  • Draft 9' 4"
  • Speed 18.1 kts.
  • Complement 105
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount and two 40mm mounts
  • Propulsion: Two 900shp Fairbanks Morse 38RD8 diesel engines, Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Raven 24k Namesake: Raven - A large, black bird of the crow family Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 21 March 2020
    Raven 71k Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Raven 54k Wearing Measure 1 colors in this photograph.
    U. S. Navy photo courtesy of Floating Drydock from "Naval Camouflage 1914-1945: A Complete Visual Reference", by David Williams    		 Robert Hurst
    Raven 94k Postcard Tommy Trampp
    Raven 94k Original photo: c. 1941
    Replacement photo: U.S. Navy photo from the 1943/1944 edition of Janes Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    Raven 85k c. 1941 .
    Raven 112k c. 1941
    Post card    		 Richard Leonhardt
    Raven 278k 12 April 1941
    Norfolk Navy Yard Portsmouth, VA
    U.S. Navy photo 2-25    		 Ed Zajkowski
    Raven 115k Mae Weigand hand painted Naval Cover dated 1 July 1941 Tommy Trampp
    Raven 92k c. 1942
    In Measure 12 Modified with a non-standard bow wave
    National Archives photo 80-G-043656    		 Tracy White
    Raven 80k c. August 1942
    National Archives photo from Allied Escort Ships of World War II by Peter Elliott    		 Krlicbegovic Edib
    Bosnia & Hercegovina
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Joe Warren Stryker, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral11 November 1940 - 1941
    02LCDR Francis Smith Kirk, USNR1941 - 19 May 1942
    03LCDR Colby Guequierre Rucker, USN19 May 1942 - 23 January 1943
    04LT James L. Davenport, USN23 January 1943 - 6 October 1943
    05LCDR John Francis Madden, USN6 October 1943 - 31 August 1945
    06LT Henry W. Bull, Jr., USNR31 August 1945 - 7 September 1945
    07ENS J. Schneer, USNR7 September 1945 - 9 October 1945
    08LT Henry W. Bull, Jr., USNR9 October 1945 - 17 January 1946
    09ENS J. Schneer, USNR17 January 1946 - 31 May 1946
    ??LCDR William Henry Glenn, USN
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Raven (MSF 55)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Booklet of General Plans
    from the Historic Naval Ships Association website
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Fleet Minesweeper (MSF) Photo Index
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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