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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Broadbill (MSF 58)
ex-AM-58



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Delta - Foxtrot

Auk Class Minesweeper:

  • Built by Defoe Shipbuilding Co., Bay City, MI
  • Laid down, 23 July 1941
  • Launched, 21 May 1942
  • Commissioned USS Broadbill (AM-58), 13 October 1942
  • Decommissioned at San Diego, CA, 03 June 1946
    Naval Vessel Register of 01 January 1949 lists decommissioning and placed in reserve date as December 1945
  • Recommissioned, 19 March 1952
  • Decommissioned at Orange, TX, 25 January 1954
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull) MSF-58, 07 February 1955
  • Struck from the Navy Register, 01 July 1972
  • Sold, 01 December 1973
  • Converted to yacht by shipbroker David A. Hahn, Key West, FL, renamed Anaconda (ON 560079)
  • Out of documentation, 1976
  • Later converted to a floating restaurant, reverting to Broadbill
  • Drifted about from port to port on Delaware river and Upper Chesapeake Bay
  • Final disposition, believe broken up at Girard Point, Philadelphia, about 1996
    Specifications:

  • Displacement 890 t.
  • Length 221' 2"
  • Beam 32' 2"
  • Draft 10' 9"
  • Speed 18.1 kts.
  • Complement 105
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 40mm gun mounts, eight 20mm guns, two depth charge tracks, and five depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 1,559shp ALCO 539 diesel electric engines, Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image
    Size Image Description Source
    Namesake
    Broadbill 32k Any of certain ducks related to the canvasback and the redhead. Tommy Trampp
    USS Broadbill (AM/MSF-58)
    Broadbill 185k Broadbill with YMS-43 alongside Tom Turk
    Broadbill 283k c. 1952
    Shortly after her recommissioning
    Walter Jablonski
    Broadbill
    110205805
    283k Moored pierside, location unknown, circa 1955. Dave Wright
    Broadbill
    110205804
    95k Broadbill moored at Girard Point, Philadelphia, 30 August 1996. This is the last record of her known, assumedly broken up soon after.
    Photo from John Curdy via Facebook.
    Dave Wright

    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR John Belton Cleland, Jr., USN13 October 1942 - 1 April 1943
    02LCDR Ernest A. Ruth, Jr., USN1 April 1943
    03LCDR Oscar Berndherd Lundgren, USN - Awarded the Silver Star (1950)1 June 1943 - 1 January 1945
    04LT Robert Sherman Juhl, USN1 January 1945 - 1 April 1945
    05LCDR Edward E. Burrowes, USN1 April 1945
    06LCDR Edward Patrick O'Callahan, Jr., USN22 August 1945 - 12 November 1945
    07LT Martin B. Greenberg, USN12 November 1945 - 3 June 1946
    08LCDR John L. Brown, USN19 March 1952
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan

    View the Broadbill (AM 58)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Ship Photo Index Back to the Fleet Minesweeper (MSF) Photo Index

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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo & maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David L. Wright
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    Last Updated 09 May 2024