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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Bulwark (MSO 425)
ex-AM-425



Call sign:
November - Uniform - Bravo - Whiskey

Voice Call Sign:
" Camshaft Golf"
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 12 December 1951 at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, VA
  • Launched 14 March 1953
  • Commissioned USS Bulwark (AM-425), 12 November 1953
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper MSO-425, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 2 July 1971
  • Struck from the Naval Register 28 February 1975
  • Sold for scrap 1 May 1980 to R. E. Williams of Torrance CA. for $44,000.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 630 t.(lt), 755 t.(fl)
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 10'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 80
  • Armament: As built, one 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns Final configuration, 40mm gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remain
  • Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Bold 10k Norfolk Naval Shipyard
    Inboard of Bold (MSO 424)    		 102 Minesweepers
    Website
    Dick Lewis
    Agile 257k Undated post card
    Caption on back reads:
    U.S. Naval Station
    Charleston, SC

    Atlantic Fleet Minesweepers of Mine Division 83, USS Bulwark (MSO 425), USS Agile (MSO 421), USS Aggressive (MSO 422), and USS Bold (MSO 424), participate in Change of Command Ceremony for Commander Mine Squadron 8    		 Tommy Trampp
    Agile 172k Undated post card
    Caption on back reads:
    ATLANTIC FLEET MINE FORCE HEADQUARTERS
    U.S. Naval Base
    Charleston, SC

    Two of the ocean minesweepers and minesweeping ships, assigned to this command [Agile (MSO 421) and Bulwark] assigned to this command. Small and compact, they have the dangerous mission of searching for enemy mines, locating them by electronic and magnetic means, and destroying enemy mines after they have been located
    Photo by Ernest Ferguson
    Bulwark 154k Valletta, Malta Richard Miller, BMCS, USN, Ret.
    Acadia 87k USS Arcadia (AD 23); Hawkins (DDR 873); McNair (DD 679); Exploit (MSO 440); Bulwark; Aggressive (MSO 422) and Bold (MSO 424)
    U.S. Navy photo from the January 1956 edition of All Hands magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Agile 40k c. 1957
    Patras, Greece
    Agile (MSO 421) (astern), and Bulwark outboard of Bold (MSO 424), during Agile's last Mediterranean cruise
    Photo from 102 Minesweepers Website    		 Robert Hurst
    Bulwark 92k U.S. Navy photo from the April 1965 edition of All Hands magazine Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    01LT James Albert Paulick, USN12 November 1953 - 1955
    02LCDR Henry Ortland, III, USN - USNA Class of 19461955 - 1958
    03LCDR Warren Curry Graham, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1948-B1958 - 1960
    04LCDR Samuel David Hoffman, USN1960 - January 1963
    05LT Ferdinand Iglehart Collins, Jr., USNJanuary 1963 - November 1963
    06LCDR William Henry Hannaford, USNNovember 1963 - November 1964
    07LCDR John Dunn Stanard, Jr., USNNovember 1964 - 21 September 1966
    08LCDR William John "Bill" Naldrett, USN21 September 1966 - 15 July 1968
    09LCDR Virgil B. Melvin, USN15 July 1968 - 1969
    10LCDR Peter Richard Latham, USN1969 - 2 July 1971
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves, Bill Gonyo and George Dean
    View the Bulwark (MSO-425)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Ocean Minesweeper (MSO) Photo Index
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