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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Penetrate (MSF 271)
ex-AM-271



Call sign:
Nan - Peter - Tare - Xray


Penetrate served the Navies of the United States and the Soviet Union
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 5 January 1943 by the Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL
  • Launched 11 September 1943
  • Commissioned USS Penetrate (AM 271), 31 March 1944
  • Decommissioned 21 May 1945 at Cold Bay, AK
  • Transfered to the Soviet Union 22 May 1945 and reclassified T-280
  • Assigned to the Pacific Fleet 27 June 1945 Transferred 24 June 1947 to the Ministry of Transport and converted to a whaling vessel
  • Named Typhoon 7 August 1948
  • Reclassified by U.S. Navy as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-271, 7 February 1955
  • Scrapped in the early 1960s.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 945 t. (fl)
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 9' 9"
  • Speed 14.8 kts.
  • Complement 104
  • Armament: One 3"/50 cal. dual purpose mount, one twin 40mm gun mount, six 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge projector (hedgehogs), four depth charge projectors (K-guns), and two depth
    charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 855shp 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 Penetrate (AM-271) 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
    American Ship Building
    110227002    		 263k Rear Admiral Popov speaks aboard an Admirable-class minesweeper during the ship's transfer ceremony, probably on 21 or 22 May 1945. United States Navy photo via National Archives - Scanned from Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, page 21. Caption information from same source., Public Domain, wikimedia.org
    Penetrate 115k Belle Île, France Tommy Trampp
    Penetrate 62k Looking down on the forecastle
    Penetrate 29k Open bridge
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Morris Samuel Lazaron, Jr., USNR31 March 1944 - 21 May 1945
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Penetrate (MSF 271)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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