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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Goldfinch (MSC[O] 12)
ex-AMS-12
ex-YMS-306



Call sign:
November - Papa - Kilo - Foxtrot
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 7 September 1942 by Rice Brothers Corp., Boothbay, ME
  • Launched 27 November 1942
  • Completed 18 January 1944
  • Commissioned USS YMS-306, 20 January 1944
  • Decommissioned 2 January 1947
  • Named Goldfinch and reclassified as an Auxiliary Minesweeper, AMS-12, 17 February 1947
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper (Old), MSC(O)-12, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 11 October 1957 at Philadelphia, PA
  • Struck from the Navy Register 2 November 1957
  • Sold in 1961 to the Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute of South Portland, ME for use as a fishing boat and renamed Aqualab
  • Acquired in 1972 by Peter G. Bryant of Portland, ME
  • Acquired in 1973 by Aqualab Off-Shore-Fisheries of South Portland
  • Advertised for sale in 1977 as a vessel needing salvage after spending an unknown period of time at a pier in Fort Washington, MD and then being relocated to Piscataway Creek, Fort Washington,
    across the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, VA where she sank to deck level
  • Purchased in 1978 by Captain Bott of Bott Marine International (BMI), salvaged and renamed Maida Lee for use as a base of operations for BMI in Key West, FL
  • Sunk as part of the Key West Gulfside artificial reef system.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 13 kts
  • Complement 32
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts and two depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 1,000shp 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
    USS Goldfinch (AMS 12)
    Goldfinch 57k Namesake: Goldfinch - An American lemon-yellow finch with black cap, wings, and tail Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 30 April 2020
    YMS-306 53k Joe Radigan
    YMS-303 201k c. 1950s
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 79734    		 Mike Green
    USS Goldfinch (MSC[O] 12)
    MSC(O)-12 85k c. mid-1956
    Entering harbor at Havana, Cuba    		 Rob Benson
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Richard A. Knapp, USNR20 January 1944 - March 1944
    02LT William Wilson Turner, USNRMarch 1944 - September 1945
    03LTJG Kenneth R. Roberts, USNRSeptember 1945 - December 1945
    04LTJG Russell F. Apitz, USNRDecember 1945 - June 1946
    05ENS John Evan Hart, USN - USNA Class of 1946June 1946
    06LT Robert Dale Wood, USN1950 - September 1951
    07LT G. P. Maskas, USNSeptember 1951 - June 1952
    08LTJG Hexter Amos Williams, USN - USNA Class of 1947June 1952
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Goldfinch (MSC[O] 12)
    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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