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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Kestrel (IX 175)
ex-Kestrel (AMc 5)



Call sign:
Nan - Easy - Sugar - Peter
Coastal Minesweeper:

  • The first Kestrel was built in 1938 as Chanco by the Salisbury Yacht Co., Salisbury, MD
  • Acquired by the Navy 1 October 1940 and converted to a Coastal Minesweeper
  • Placed in service as USS Kestrel (AMc 5), 20 January 1941
  • Reclassified as an Unclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary, IX-175, 10 July 1944
  • Placed out of service 29 October 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 16 November 1945
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration for disposal 5 August 1948
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for transfer to the War Shipping Administration as August 1945
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 219 t.
  • Length 98' 10"
  • Beam 21' 8"
  • Draft 6' 7"
  • Speed 11 kts.
  • Complement 19
  • Armament: Two .30 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: One Cooper Bessemer diesel engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Kestral 51k
    Namesake:

    The name kestrel (from French: crécerelle, derivative from crécelle, i.e. ratchet) is given to several members of the falcon genus, Falco. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviour which is to hover at a height of around 10–20 metres (35–65 ft) over open country and swoop down on prey, usually small mammals, lizards or large insects. Other falcons are more adapted to active hunting in flight. Kestrels are notable for usually having mostly brown in their plumage

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 9 December
    Kestrel 168k c. 1941
    USS Kestral and USS Heath Hen (AMc 6) at a Tidewater, Virginia shipyard
    Life magazine photo by George Strock    		 John Chiquoine
    View the Kestrel (AMc 5)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
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