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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Opponent (MSF 269)
ex-AM-269



Call sign:
November - Papa - Sierra - Delta
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 21 September 1942 by the Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL
  • Launched 26 June 1943
  • Commissioned USS Opponent (AM 269), 18 February 1944
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as December 1945
  • Decommissioned 27 August 1946 at Orange, TX
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-269, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 April 1960
  • Sold 3 February 1961 to Ships and Power Inc. of Miami, FL
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 945 t.(fl)
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 9' 9"
  • Speed 14.8 kts.
  • Complement 104
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, one twin 40mm gun mount, six 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge projector (hedgehog), four depth charge projectors (K-guns) and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,710shp Cooper Bessemer GSB-8 diesel engines, National Supply Co. single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    American Ship Building
    110226902    		 263k The Opponent (AM-269) was built by the Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL, a few miles upstream of the Port of Mobile.
    Here in August 1917, after the United States entered World War I, U.S. Steel established Chickasaw Shipbuilding. The yard closed after World War I but was reopened in 1940 by Waterman Steamship Corp. as Gulf Shipbuilding.     		Insert photos courtesy of catalog.archives.gov & catalog.archives.gov
    Photo courtesy of destroyerhistory.org
    Opponent 55k Launching Dick Delano
    Commanding Officers
    01LT John Donald Seay, Jr., USNR18 February 1944
    02LT George Edward Schaaf, USNR20 January 1945
    03LTJG Antonio James Amico, USNR8 February 1946
    04LTJG Allen Lee Peek, USNR21 April 1946
    05LCDR John Stanley Alexander, USNR11 July 1946 - 27 August 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Opponent (AM 269)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Fleet Minesweeper (MSF) Photo Index
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