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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Seagull (MSC[O] 55)
ex-Seagull (AMS 55)
ex-YMS-402



Call sign:
November - Papa - Alpha - Sierra
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 24 July 1942 by Henry B. Nevins, Inc., City Island, New York, NY
  • Launched 17 April 1943
  • Completed 25 June 1943
  • Commissioned USS YMS-402, 26 June 1943
  • Decommissioned 1 August 1946
  • Placed in service 30 October 1946 for use as a Naval Reserve training ship
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for placing in service as a Naval Reserve training ship as September 1947 in the 3rd Naval District (New York)
  • Named Seagull and reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-55, 1 September 1947
  • Recommissioned 10 May 1950
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper, (Old), MSC(O)-55, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 11 October 1957 at Philadelphia, PA
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 November 1959
  • Acquired in 1962 by Francis W. Rhinow of Greenport, LA for use as a fishing boat and renamed Gracie R
  • Renamed Sea Gull
  • Acquired in 1964 by MV Little River, Inc. of Kilmarnock, VA and renamed Little River
  • Acquired in 1972 by Standard Products, Inc. of Kilmarnock
  • Out of documentation in 1986
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 6' 1"
  • Speed 13 kts.
  • Complement 33
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts, two depth charge track 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
    USS YMS-402
    Terror 136k c. September/October 1945
    USS YMS-402 alongside USS Terror (CM 5) starboard quarter during Japanese mainland occupation duty
    Life magazine photo by George Strock
    National Archives photo 80-G-355201    		 Rick Davis and John Chiquoine
    Photos added 2 October 2021
    Terror 170k Cropped from above photo
    USS Seagull (MSC[O] 55)
    Seagull 25k
    Namesake:

    Gull/Sea Gull/Seagull - A common shore bird having long wings and webbed feet

    		Tommy Trampp
    Seagull 103k Seagull (MSC[O] 55) BMC Ivor J. Steadman, USN, Ret.
    Seagull 66k In drydock
    Seagull 72k c. 1956
    Crew of Seagull. LT Lawrence Traynor, Commanding (Front row, center)
    Seagull 62k c. 1960 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Arthur Patrick Keegan, Jr., USNR26 June 1943
    02LT John W. Gaines, USNR1943
    03LTJG Roger T. Dombrow, USNR1945
    04Chief Boatswain David Earl Bartles, USN1950 - 10 September 1951
    05LT Theodore A. Stolte, USNR10 September 1951 - 1953
    07LT Ralph Glover Spencer, USN1954 - 1955
    08LCDR Lawrence Eugene "Larry" Traynor, USN1955 - February 1956
    09LT Frank Stevenson Conlon, USNFebruary 1956 - 11 October 1957
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Seagull (MSC[O] 55)
    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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