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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Spear (MSF 322)
ex-AM-322



Call sign:
November - Charlie - Papa - Charlie

ex-HMS Errant (BAM 22)


Spear served the Navies of the United States and Mexico.
Auk Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down as HMS Errant (BAM 22), 27 October 1942 by Associated Shipbuilders, Seattle, WA
  • Renamed and reclassified Spear (AM 322), 23 January 1943
  • Launched 25 February 1943
  • Commissioned USS Spear (AM 322), 31 December 1943
  • Decommissioned in August 1946 at San Diego, CA and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-322, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1972
  • Sold to Mexico 19 September 1972 and renamed ARM Ignacio De La Llave (G 08)
  • Fate unknown.

    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 twin 40mm gun mounts, two 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks and five depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 1,766shp General Motors 12-278 diesel electric drive engines, Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Spear 215k Original photo: c. 1945
    Off San Francisco, CA
    Replacement photo: Off San Francisco, California, circa 1945
    Courtesy of D.M. McPherson, 1974
    U.S. Navy photo NH 79736         		Original photo: Victor Barnaby
    Replacement photo: Naval History and Heritage Command
    Replacement photo added 24 January 2021
    Spear 276k c. 1945
    Honolulu, HI     		Victor Barnaby
    Spear 360k 31 August 2007
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Arthur Mix Savage, USNR31 December 1943 - 30 November 1945
    02LCDR Leigh Cosart "Early" Winters, USN - USNA Class of 194015 March 1946
    03LT George Stebbins Davis, Jr., USN12 December 1946 - 13 January 1947
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and R. A. Moody
    View the Spear (MSF 322)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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