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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

YMS-163



Call sign:
Nan - Xray - Zebra - Baker
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 23 April 1942 by the Daschel-Carter Shipbuilding Corp., Benton Harbor, MI
  • Launched 27 October 1942
  • Commissioned USS YMS-163, 3 March 1943
  • Completed 8 March 1943
  • Decommissioned 23 May 1946
  • Struck from the Naval Register 2 February 1947
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration in February 1948
  • Sold in 1949 to the Michelle Shipping Co. of Martinez, CA for use as a fishing boat and named Michelle Eve
  • Sold in 1954 to the Malaspina Fisheries Co. of Seattle, WA
  • Sold in 1963 to Aleutian Seafoods, Inc. of King Cove, AK and renamed Aleutian Reefer
  • Sold in 1964 to Roy Furfiord and Harry Furford dba Polar Fisheries, Inc. of Seattle
  • Caught fire 29 May 1967 at Homer, AK; towed out of the harbor and sank.

    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 880bhp 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-163 56k Anthony and John Cobum. Anthony P. Cobum and four brothers served concurrently during the war. Two brothers were in the Navy, and two in the Merchant Marine. Brother John served aboard YMS-163, which performed inshore mine-sweeping in advance of Pacific island amphibious assaults, while Anthony went in with the Marines. They ran across each other several times during the war, and regaled family and friends in later years with tales of those meetings Tommy Trampp
    YMS-163 34k
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Allen F. Edwards, Jr., USNR3 March 1943
    02LT P. B. Nicks, USNR1945
    03LT John Thomas Hughes, USNR1946
    Courtesy Joe Radigan and Sally Hughes
    There is no DANFS History currently available for YMS-163
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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