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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Cardinal (AM 67)



Call sign:
Nan - Easy - Charlie - How

Cardinal Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 20 April 1937 as the Trawler Jeanne d'Arc by Bath Iron Works, Bath, ME for Francis J. O'Hara and Sons, Inc. of Boston, MA
  • Launched 21 August 1937
  • Delivered 23 October 1937
  • Renamed Cardinal 14 August 1940
  • Acquired by the Navy 19 August 1940
  • Commissioned in ordinary 28 August 1940 and started conversion to a Minesweeper at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA
  • Conversion completed 4 September 1940
  • Commissioned in full as USS Cardinal (AM 67), 2 November 1940
  • Conversion work fully completed 22 April 1941
  • Decommissioned 8 September 1944 at Norfolk, VA
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration for disposal 29 August 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 23 September 1944, returned to her owner and renamed Red Jacket
  • Acquired in 1946 by the Atlantic Coast Fisheries Co. of Portland,ME
  • Acquired in 1947 by Trawler Red Jacket, Inc. of Boston
  • Operated in 1980 by the Irving Usen Trawling Co. of Boston
  • Out of documentation in 1989
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 516 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24'
  • Draft 11' 2"
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, two .30 cal. machine guns and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: One 735hp Fairbanks Morse diesel engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image
    Size Image Description Source
    Cardinal 63k Namesake: Cardinal - A crested red finch widely known in the eastern United States Tommy Trampp
    Cardinal 143k At Hampton Roads, Virginia, 25 November 1940
    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives
    National Archives photo 19-N-23212
    Original photo: Naval Historical Center
    Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
    Cardinal 202k Jim Kurrasch, Battleship Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
    Bullfinch 136k Cardinal, inboard, and USS Bullfinch (AM-66), outboard at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 31 October 1941. Note these minesweepers' dark paint scheme, with large white hull numbers and mine force insignia on their bows. Both have been fitted with 3"/50 deck guns
    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives
    National Archives photo 19-N-25946
    Naval Historical Center

    Commanding Officers
    01LT Julius Elbridge Smith, Jr., USN2 November 1940 - 1941
    02LT Howard C. Plummer, USNR1941 - December 1942
    03LTJG Richard J. Cruise, USNRDecember 1942 - May 1944
    04LTJG Arethur C. Cobb, USNRMay 1944 - 8 September 1944
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

    View the Cardinal (AM 67)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website

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