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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Goldcrest (AM 80)



Call sign:
Nan - Able - Nan - Mike
Goldcrest Class Minesweeper:

  • The first Goldcrest was laid down in 1928 as the steel hull trawler Shawmut by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, MA for the Massachusetts Trawling Co., Boston, MA
  • Acquired by the Navy 29 November 1940 and began conversion to a minesweeper by the Bethlehem Steel Co., East Boston, MA
  • Conversion completed 28 April 1941
  • Renamed Goldcrest 12 December 1940
  • Commissioned USS Goldcrest (AM 80), 15 May 1941 at the Boston Navy Yard
  • In early 1942, the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (LTJG, USNR) served as Executive Officer in Goldcrest
  • Decommissioned 12 December 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 3 January 1946
  • Sold to her former owner 20 June 1946
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists transfer to the War Shipping Administration in September 1946
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 400 t.
  • Length 122' 5"
  • Beam 23' 1"
  • Draft 10' 11"
  • Speed 11 kts.
  • Complement 36
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount
  • Propulsion: One 600shp Atlas 6H M3358 diesel engine, no reduction gear, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Goldcrest 23k
    Namesake:

    Goldcrest - A small European bird of the genus Regulus

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Goldcrest 223k Drawing prepared by the Bureau of Ships for a camouflage scheme intended for minesweepers of the AM-80 (Goldcrest) class. This plan, approved by Captain Torvald A. Solberg, USN, is dated 16 June 1944. It shows the ship's port side, starboard side and superstructure ends
    National Archives photos 80-G-174535 and 80-G-174536    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Goldcrest 210k
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Conrad Heinrich Koopman, Jr., USNR15 May 1941
    02LT William Louis Savell, USNR10 December 1942
    03LT Richard Albert Evans, Jr., USNR30 June 1943
    04LTJG Thomas Leavey Cleaver, Jr., USNR2 January 1944
    05LTJG John Francis Bays, USNR15 September 1945 - 12 December 1945
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler
    View the Goldcrest (AM 80)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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