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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

USS Crusader (ARS 2)

Call sign:
Nan - Queen - Love - Victor

ex-USC&GS Pioneer

Call sign (1924):
Nan - Item - Jig - Love

Call sign (1933):
William - Tare - Easy - Sail

ex-USS Osprey (AM 29)

Call sign (1920):
Negat - Afirm - Zed - Queen

ex-Minesweeper No. 29

Call sign (1919):
George - Tare - Sail - Quack

Osprey served both the U. S. Navy and the Coast & Geodetic Survey

Lapwing Class Minesweeper:

Laid down 14 November 1917 by the Gas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury, Morris Heights, NY

Launched 19 November 1918

Commissioned USS Osprey (Minesweeper No. 29), 7 January 1919

Designated AM-29, 17 July 1920

Decommissioned 12 December 1920

Transferred to the Coast and Geodetic Survey 7 April 1922 and renamed USC&GS Pioneer

Returned to Navy custody 17 September 1941, recommissioned and reclassified as a Salvage Ship, USS Crusader (ARS-2)

Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal 13 February 1947

Sold in April 1952

Fate unknown.

Specifications:

Displacement 950 t.

1933 - 1,180 t.

Length 187' 10"

1933 - 180'

Beam 35' 6"

Draft 9' 9"

1933 - 12.6'

Speed 14 kts.

Complement 82

1933 - 69

Armament: Two .30 cal. Lewis machine guns

1941 - 20mm mount or smaller

Propulsion: Two 200psi Babcock and Wilcox boilers, one 1,400shp Harlan and Hollingsworth Corp. vertical triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
USS Osprey (Minesweeper No. 29)
	44k	Namesake: *Osprey* - A large hawk-like bird with a dark brown back and a white breast, found in most countries of the world	Tommy Trampp
	80k	"The Buoy Laying Division in Kirkwall Harbor." From left to right, in center: Osprey, Penguin (Minesweeper #33), and USS Lapwing (Minesweeper # 1) moored together in Kirkwall Harbor, Orkney Islands, during the sweeping of the North Sea Mine Barrage, 1919. Note the identification letters on the ships' bows: "A" on Osprey, "PD" on Penguin and "W" on Lapwing Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken by Kitress, of USS Swan [Minesweeper No. 34], published in the cruise book "Sweeping the North Sea Mine Barrage, 1919", page 63 Donation of Chief Storekeeper Charles A. Free U.S. Navy photo NH 99474	Naval Historical Center
	277k	Photo from "Sweeping the North Sea Mine Barrage" by the U.S. Navy North Sea Minesweeping Detachment	Joe Radigan
USC&GS Pioneer
	98k	USC&GS Pioneer	Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy
	146k	8 September 1922 Shortly after her transfer to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Library of Congress photo LC-F8- 20428	Mike Green
	108k	Seen here as USC&GS Pioneer (left) along with USC&GS Guide, ex-Flamingo (AM 32) (right) at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, Alaska, 1940 USC&GS photo	Ramon Jackson
	61k	USC&GS Pioneer	Joe Radigan
	118k	c. 1940 Alaska Coast and Geodetic Survey Ships Pioneer and Guide NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; Captain Harry D. Reed, C&GS	NOAA Website
USS Crusader (ARS 2)
	88k	Near the Mare Island Navy Yard on 23 March 1942, shortly after completing conversion to a civilian-operated salvage vessel Naval History and Heritage Command photos from Shipscribe	Mike Green
	92k		Mike Green

Commanding Officers
01	LT Murry Wolffe, USN - Awarded the Navy Cross (1920)	7 January 1919 - 17 December 1920

Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

View the Osprey (AM-29)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website

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