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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

HMS BYMS-2173
ex-HMS-J-973
ex-YMS-173


BYMS-2173 served only in the British Navy.
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 28 May 1942 as YMS-173 by Henry C. Grebe and Co., Chicago, IL
  • Launched 7 December 1942
  • Completed 1 May 1943
  • Transferred to Great Britain 13 May 1943 and renamed HMS J-973
  • Renamed HMS BYMS-2173
  • Struck from the Navy Register 28 August 1947
  • Transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in May 1948 and purchased by the Finnish Ministry of Supply in 1948
  • Sold in September 1948 but returned to the ministry and resold in 1949 to Hollming Shipyard
  • Sold in 1954 (without engines) to a religious society called "Saalem-lähetysry" ("Saalem-mission"). Named Ebeneser on 15 June 1954 and started service as a mission ship. Ebeneser owner his family of
    seven (five children aged 16 - 10, and twenty six other adults and two other children, sailed from Helsinki, Finland to Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), in August 1955 for India and Singapore
  • Sailed from On 20 September 1983 she foundered in a tropical storm in Indonesian waters
  • All 19 members of the crew, including the owner, his son, Emmanuel Yrjola,, with his family (children aged four, nine and twelve) survived on a small lifeboat.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 13 kts.
  • Complement 50
  • Armament: One 3"/50 gun mount
  • 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
    YMS-257 94k BYMS-2173 inboard of BYMS-2257, ex-YMS-257 Joe Radigan
    There is no DANFS History currently available for BYMS-2173
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