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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Nuthatch (MSF 60)
ex-AM-60



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Lima - Bravo
Auk Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 22 May 1941 by the Defoe Boat and Marine Works, Bay City, MI
  • Launched 16 September 1942
  • Commissioned USS Nuthatch (AM 60), 19 November 1942
  • Decommissioned 3 June 1946 at San Diego CA
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists decommissioning and placed in reserve date as December 1945
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-60, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 December 1966 and sunk as a target.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 890 t.
  • Length 221' 2"
  • Beam 32' 2"
  • Draft 10' 9"
  • Speed 18.1 kts.
  • Complement 105
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 40mm gun mounts, eight 20mm guns, two depth charge tracks, and five depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 1,559shp ALCO 539 diesel electric engines, Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Nuthatch 41k Namesake: Nuthatch - A small bird, of the family Sittidae, having long wings and a short tail Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 24 March 2020
    Nuthatch 171k 10 November 1943
    Nuthatch as she provided escort to SS Santa Marta to Norfolk, Virginia. War time censor has airbrushed the top of her mast to remove radar antenna. She is in Measure
    22 camouflage
    National Archives photo 80-G-44379    		 Original photo: Ron Reeves
    Replacement photo: Tracy White
    Nuthatch 8k Ships mascot "Joe" Ron Reeves
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Denis Donald Humphreys, USN19 November 1942 - 1 April 1943
    02LCDR Charles Rea Millett, USN1 April 1943
    03LCDR Robert A. L. Ellis, USN3 March 1944
    04CDR Joseph William Meiere, USN13 August 1945 - 12 September 1945
    05LCDR Paul Francis McLaughlin, USN12 September 1945 - 13 November 1945
    06LT Parker A. Kitchell, USN13 November 1945 - 3 June 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Nuthatch (MSF 60)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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