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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Goldcrest (AM 80)



Call sign:
Nan - Able - Nan - Mike
Goldcrest Class Minesweeper:

  • Built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, MA (YN 1419)
  • Launched, 20 September 1928
  • Delivered to the Massachusetts Trawling Co., Boston, MA, as the steel hull trawler Shawmut (ON 228037), 05 November 1928
  • Acquired by the Navy 29 November 1940
  • Renamed Goldcrest 12 December 1940
  • Conversion to a minesweeper by the Bethlehem Steel Co., East Boston, MA, completed 28 April 1941
  • Commissioned at Boston Navy Yard USS Goldcrest (AM-80), 15 May 1941
  • In early 1942, the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (LTJG, USNR) served as Executive Officer in Goldcrest
  • Decommissioned, 12 December 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 03 January 1946
  • Sold to her former owner 20 June 1946
  • Registered under Dutch flag to NV Visscherij Mij "Batavia", Ijmuiden, as Batavia, 1947
  • Returned to US registry, owned by Trawler Batavia, Inc., Portland, ME, 1952
  • Registered to Trawler Minnie, Inc., Bath, ME, renamed Minnie, 1955
  • Registered to Trawler Newton, Inc., Portland, ME, renamed Newton, 1960
  • Final disposition, out of documentation, March 1977
    Specifications:
  • Displacement 400 tons
  • Length 122' 5"
  • Beam 23' 1"
  • Draft 10' 11"
  • Speed 11 knots
  • Complement 36
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount
  • Propulsion: One 600shp Atlas 6H M3358 diesel engine, no reduction gear, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Namesake
    Goldcrest
    110208003    		 23k Goldcrest - A small European bird of the genus Regulus Tommy Trampp
    USS Goldcrest (AM-80)
    Goldcrest
    110208004    		 151k Underway as Shawmut prewar. Dave Wright
    Goldcrest
    110208001    		 223k Drawing prepared by the Bureau of Ships for a camouflage scheme intended for minesweepers of the AM-80 (Goldcrest) class. This plan, approved by Captain Torvald A. Solberg, USN, is dated 16 June 1944. It shows the ship's port side, starboard side and superstructure ends
    National Archives photos 80-G-174535 and 80-G-174536    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Goldcrest
    110208002    		 210k
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Conrad Heinrich Koopman, Jr., USNR15 May 1941
    02LT William Louis Savell, USNR10 December 1942
    03LT Richard Albert Evans, Jr., USNR30 June 1943
    04LTJG Thomas Leavey Cleaver, Jr., USNR2 January 1944
    05LTJG John Francis Bays, USNR15 September 1945 - 12 December 1945
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler
    View the Goldcrest (AM 80)
    DANFS History entry located on the Naval History & Heritage Command website
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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    Last Updated 30 January 2025