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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Quest (AM 281)



Call sign:
Nan - Queen - Fox - George


Quest served the Navies of the United States and the Philippines.
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down, 24 November 1943 at Gulf Shipbuilding Corp., Chickasaw, AL
  • Launched, 16 March 1944
  • Commissioned USS Quest (AM 281), 25 October 1944
  • Decommissioned, 2 May 1946
  • Struck from the Navy Register 29 September 1947
  • Transferred to the Philippines 2 July 1948
  • Designated as the Presidential Yacht and renamed RPS APO-21
  • Renamed Pagasa
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Corvette and renamed Santa Maria
  • Renamed RPS Mount Samat (TK 21)
  • 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 and one twin 40mm gun mount, six single 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge thrower (hedgehogs), four depth charge projectiles (K-guns), 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
    USS Quest (AM 281)
    American Ship Building
    110226902    		 263k The Quest (AM-281) 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
    Quest 294k c. November 1944 Ed Zajkowski
    Quest 89k Wearing camouflage 32/23D reversed port and starboard in Mobile Bay, AL on 2 November 1944
    National Archives photo BS 74053 from the Bureau of Ships collection    		 Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    RPS APO-21
    Quest 53k c. 1952 Robert Hurst
    RPS Santa Maria
    Quest 74k c. 1956
    Philippine Navy photo from the 1956/1957 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    RPS Mount Samat (TK 21)
    Quest 111k U.S. Navy photo by G. Arra Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Quest 53k c. 1965 Robert Hurst
    Quest 161k c. 1971
    Philippine Navy photo
    Commanding Officers
    01LT John Thomas Riley, Jr., USNR25 October 1944 - 16 September 1945
    02LT Robert Randolph Garnett, USNR16 September 1945 - 23 November 1945
    03LTJG Frederick Ralph Barnes, USNR23 November 1945 - 22 April 1946
    04LTJG Robert Lucien Cleveland, USNR22 April 1946 - 2 May 1946
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Quest (AM 281)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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