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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Bobolink (MHC 44)
ex-AMS-2
ex-YMS-164



Call sign:
November - Xray - Zulu - Victor
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 24 April 1942 by the Dachel-Carter Shipbuilding Corp., Benton Harbor, MI
  • Launched 28 November 1942
  • Completed 27 March 1943
  • Commissioned USS YMS-164, 14 April 1943 and assigned to the European Theater of operations
  • Decommissioned 7 July 1946
  • Named Bobolink and reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-2, 18 February 1947
  • Assigned as a Naval Reserve Training vessel in November 1948 at San Francisco, CA
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Minehunter, MHC-44, 7 February 1955
  • Conversion to MHC-44 began 1 March 1955 at Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, SC
  • Conversion completed 30 September 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 January 1960
  • Sold in 1961 to the Borden Co. of Cape May, NJ for use as a fishing boat and renamed Gail Borden
  • Sold in 1969 to Operations Oceanographic, Inc. of Newton, MA and renamed Force Five
  • Sold in 1973 to the J. F. White Contracting Co. of Newtonville, MA
  • Sold in 1975 to Arctic Marine Enterprises, Inc. of Scituate, MA for use as an oil exploration vessel and renamed Arctic Fox
  • Burned 28 February 1975 at the Hingham Shipyard, Hingham, MA
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 15 kts.
  • Complement 32
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts 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-164
    Bobolink 230k c. 1945/1946
    San Francisco Bay, CA
    Courtesy of D. M. McPherson, 1974
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 79688    		 Mike Green
    USS Bobolink (AMS 2)
    Bobolink 216k Namesake: Bobolink is an American bird named after its call Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 14 February 2020
    Bobolink 98k Joe Radigan
    Bobolink 88k c. 1954/1955 Eric R. Johns
    Bobolink 91k Bobolink life ring
    USS Bobolink (MHC 44)
    Bobolink 81k Bobolink (MHC 44)
    U.S. Navy photo from the February 1957 issue of All Hands magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    01LTJG Robert W. Cumming, Jr., USNR14 April 1943
    02LTJG George E. McGurn, USNR1944
    03LT James Calder Linville, USN9 May 1950 - 10 December 1951
    04LT Joe Morris Landtroop, USN10 December 1951 - November 1952
    05LTJG H. N. Burns, USNNovember 1953
    06LT Clarence Earl Chinn, USNJune 1956 - 2 December 1957
    07LT Forrest Ronald Johns, USN1959
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Bobolink (MHC 44)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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