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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Zeal (MSF 131)
ex-AM-131



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Sierra - Xray
Auk Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 12 January 1942 by the Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL
  • Launched 15 September 1942
  • Commissioned USS Zeal (AM 131), 9 July 1943
  • Decommissioned 4 June 1946 at San Diego, CA
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists out of commission, in reserve as December 1945
  • Recommissioned 19 December 1951
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-131, 5 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 6 July 1956
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 December 1966
  • Sunk as a target 9 January 1967.

    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 twin 40mm gun mounts, two single 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, 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
    USS Zeal (AM 131)
    Zeal 49k Frederick C. Rufe
    USS Zeal (MSF 131)
    Zeal 62k Frederick C. Rufe
    Zeal 61k c. 1955
    Zeal 61k c. 1955
    Pearl Harbor, HI
    Stern view    		 Ted Bojanowski
    Zeal 48k 4 August 1955
    In the Far East
    Moored to a buoy alongside a sister ship
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 68593 from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Herbert Melvin Jones, USNR9 July 1943 - 19 January 1944
    02LCDR Ernest Murphy Woodhouse, USNR19 January 1944 - 13 August 1945
    03LT Harry R. Whiteman, USNR19 October 1945
    04LTJG Charles W. Knowlton, USNR15 January 1946 - 4 June 1946
    05LT Frank Henry Sonntag, USN19 December 1951 October 1952
    06LT Lester William Dienst, USN (later USNR) - USNA Class of 1946October 1952 - December 1952 (Acting)
    07LT Frank Henry Sonntag, USN - Retired as CaptainDecember 1952
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves, Joe Radigan and R. A. Moody
    View the Zeal (MSF-131)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway 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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