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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Left patch from the May 1963 issue of All Hands magazine, right patchs courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Guide (MSO-447)
ex-AM-447



Call sign:
November - Sierra - Sierra - November
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down, 20 February 1953 as AM-447 by the Seattle Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corp., Seattle, WA
  • Launched 17 April 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper MSO-447, 7 February 1955
  • Commissioned USS Guide (MSO-447), 15 March 1955
  • Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register 9 July 1972
  • Sold 27 January 1974 for scrap through the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Al Kidman of Wilmington, CA for $26,601.

    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, bow 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
    Guide 72k - USS Guide (MSO-447) Website
    Harry Westervelt (1960-62)
    Guide 105k - USS Guide (MSO-447) Website
    Albert B. Moore, (1959-61)
    Guide 67k -
    Enhance 298k Sasebo, Japan
    In dry dock astern of Enhance (MSO 437)    		 Barbara Ritola
    Commanding Officers
    01LT John Edward Lowell, USN - USNA Class of 194615 March 1955 - 10 November 1956
    02LT Lloyd Milton Pearson, USN10 November 1956 - April 1958
    03LCDR Robert Dewey Duncan, USN - USNA Class of 1948-B1958 - December 1959
    04LCDR George Edwin Barton, USNDecember 1959 - 1960
    05LCDR George Louis Hart, USN - Maine Maritime Academy Class of 19451960 - 11 July 1961
    06LCDR Norbert Lauren Moriarty, USN11 July 1961 - 15 November 1963
    07LCDR/CDR Curtis Ralph Norton, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 194915 November 1963 - 10 July 1965
    08CDR Jack Edward Varney, USN10 July 1965 - 1967
    09LT Newton Henry Morgan, USN (Acting)June 1967 - 31 July 1967
    10LCDR Clarence Wayne Wood, USN31 July 1967 - 1968
    11LCDR Mark B. Williamson, USN1968 - 1968
    12/td>LCDR Frank Dukat, USN1968 - 1968
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Guide (MSO-447)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Websites of Interest
    U.S.S. Guide MSO-447
    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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