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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Al Grazevich

Turkey (MSC[O] 56)
ex-AMS-56
ex-YMS-444



Call sign:
November - Charlie - Papa - Bravo
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down, 16 November 1943 by the C. Hiltebrant Dry Dock Co., Kingston, NY
  • Launched, 20 July 1944
  • Completed, 21 December 1944
  • Commissioned USS YMS-444, 26 December 1944
  • Decommissioned 30 August 1946
  • Named Turkey and reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-56, 1 September 1947; placed in service as a Naval Reserve Training vessel and assigned to the 3rd Naval District (New York)
  • Placed in commission, in reserve, in April 1950
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper (Old), MSC(O)-56, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 23 November 1956 at Charleston, SC
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 October 1968
  • Sold in August 1969
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 33
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts, two .50 cal. machine guns, two depth charge tracks and two depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 880bhp General Motors 8-268A diesel engines, Snow and Knobstedt single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS YMS-444
    YMS-444 64k c. 1946
    Charleston, SC
    Showing plywood patches covering damage received from refueling    		 Charles W. Dunn
    YMS-444 66k c. 1946
    Charleston, SC.
    YMS-444 65k
    YMS-444 55k
    YMS-444 69k Somewhere between Pearl Harbor, HI and San Pedro, CA
    YMS-444 67k
    YMS-444 67k
    USS Turkey (MSC[O] 56)
    Turkey 104k Namesake: Turkey - A large game and poultry bird, allied to the pheasant and native to North America. Benjamin Franklin suggested that the abundant wild turkey, which had provided food for the early settlers in the New World, should be chosen as the national bird Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 13 February 2020
    Turkey 25k USS Surfbird Web Site
    and Don Gillispie
    (1960-63)
    Turkey 31k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Bold 141k Original photo: Bold, Falcon (MSC 190), Turkey (MSC[O] 56), and Siskin (MSC[O] 58)
    U.S. Navy photo from the November 1965 edition of All Hands magazine
    Replacement photo: c. 1965
    Providence, RI
    U.S. Naval Reserve Mine Division 22    		 Original photo: Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
    Turkey 117k Underway circa October 1966. Except for removal of most of her guns and addition of newer radar, she is little changed from her original configuration
    U.S. Navy photo from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    Turkey (MSC[O] 56)
    Turkey 355k 20 January 1969
    Berthed at the U. S. Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Turkey and Reedbird (MSC[O] 51) are pictured in a nest with six sister MSC(O)’s. Lorikeet (MSC[O] 49) is astern and to the right of Reedbird
    Official U.S. Navy photos taken by the shipyard for use in the sales catalog found on board old headquarters ship Chandeleur (AV 10) in early 1971 at NISMF    		 James Swank
    Commanding Officers
    01LT George H. H. Huey, USNR26 December 1944
    02Chief Boatswain George Smith, USN1950 - June 1951
    03LT John Ernest Balogh, USNJune 1951 - April 1952
    04LT Willis M. Watkins, Jr., USNRApril 1952 - 15 December 1952
    05LT William Thomas Sanders, Jr., USN (later USNR) - USNA Class of 194715 December 1952
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Turkey (MSC[O] 56)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper (YMS) Photo Index Back to the Motor Minesweeper (AMS) Photo Index Back to the Coastal Minesweeper (MSC) Photo Index
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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo & maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright xz
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