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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Ransom (MSF 283)
ex-AM-283



Call sign:
November - Quebec - Golf - Papa
Admirable Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 24 April 1943 by the General Engineering and Dry Dock Co., San FrancIsco, CA
  • Launched 18 September 1943
  • Commissioned USS Ransom (AM 283), 5 August 1944
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as December 1945
  • Decommissioned 3 March 1947 at Orange, TX
  • Recommissioned 16 March 1951
  • Decommissioned in June 1953 at Charleston, SC
  • Reclassfied as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-283, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 May 1962
  • Fate: Sunk as a wreck in 2000 off the coast of Cancun., Mexico.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 945 t.(fl)
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 9' 9"
  • Speed 14.8 kts.
  • Complement 104
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, one twin 40mm gun mount, six 20mm gun mounts, one depth charge projector (hedgehog), four depth charge projectors (K-guns) and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,710shp Cooper Bessemer GSB-8 diesel engines, National Supply Co. single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    American Ship Building
    110225801    		 1.38k The Ransom (AM-283) was built by the General Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Alameda, CA Photo courtesy of wikimedia.org
    Ransom 173k Wearing camouflage 32/22D in San Francisco Bay, CA. The colors are dull black and light gray and the photo was taken by NAS Alameda
    National Archives photo 19-LCM-AM283-1    		 Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    Ransom 83k Ransom (AM-283) Daniel G. Zeh
    Ransom
    110228303    		 263k Wreck of the Ransom (AM-283) after her transfer to the Mexican Navy and renamed ARM DM-12. In 1994, she was renamed ARM Teniente Juan de la Barrera (C55) after Juan de la Barrera. She was stricken in 2000, and was intentionally sunk to make an artificial reef off the coast of Cancun. In 2005 hurricane Wilma hit the area and damaged the Ransom and other local man made reefs. Depth is approximately 75 feet and has very little penetration on the back deck of the wreck. The rest of the wreck is just in pieces, but the stern can be appreciated resting to its left side. Text courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.
    Insert photo courtesy of mexicodivers.com
    Ransom
    110228304    		 531k Wreck of the ARM C-55. Photo courtesy of scubasplash.com
    Ransom
    110228305    		 1.00k One of over 20 color photos of the wreck: Craig Harris inside the stern of C-55. Photo courtesy of divingisla.com
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR William Norman McMillen, USNR5 August 1944 - 1 October 1945
    02LT Eddie William Hogan, USNR1 October 1945
    ??LCDR Charles H. Bryant, USN16 March 1951 - 1952
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Ransom (MSF 238) DANFS History
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Fleet Mineweeper (MSF) Photo Index
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