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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Nightingale (MSC[O] 50)
ex-Nightingale (AMS 50)
ex-YMS-290



Call sign:
November - Golf - Victor - Quebec
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • The fifth Nightingale was laid down 30 November 1942 by the Associated Shipbuilders, Seattle, WA
  • Launched 27 February 1943
  • Delivered 14 June 1943
  • Completed and commissioned USS YMS-290, 17 July 1943
  • Named Nightingale, reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-50, 1 September 1947 and placed in service as a Naval Reserve training ship in the 1st Naval District (Boston)
  • Decommissioned in March 1950 at Green Cove Springs, FL
  • Recommissioned in February 1951
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper (Old), MSC(O)-50, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned, struck from the Naval Register and sold 1 November 1959
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 15 kts.
  • Complement 32
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts and two depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 800bhp General Motors 8-268A diesel engines, Snow and Knobstedt single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    YMS-290
    YMS-290 296k 27 February 1943
    Ten year old Miss Suzanne Marion christening the ship    		 Andrew Lloyd
    USS YMS-290
    YMS-290 125k c. 1945
    San Francisco Bay, CA
    Courtesy of Donald McPherson, 1976
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 84974    		 Mike Green
    Nightingale
    Nightingale 67k
    Namesake:

    Nightingale - Any of several small European thrushes noted for sweet nocturnal song

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 31 December 2021
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Mark Goedjen, USNRFebruary 1951 - October 1951
    02LT Charles W. Knowlton, USNROctober 1951 - September 1952
    03LT Frank M. Powell, Jr., USNRSeptember 1952
    04LCDR James Ellis Baker, Jr., USN1955 - November 1957
    05LCDR John Halvor McKay, USNNovember 1957
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Nightingale (MSC[O] 50)
    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 Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper (YMS) Photo Index Back to the Motor Minesweeper (AMS) Photo Index Back to the Coastal Minesweeper (MSC) Photo Index
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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