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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Mike Smolinski


Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Fearless (MSO 442)



Call sign:
November - Juliet - Golf - Delta

ex-AM-442

Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down, 23 July 1952 by Higgins Corp., New Orleans, LA
  • Launched, 17 July 1953
  • Commissioned USS Fearless (AM-442), 22 September 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-442, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned, 23 October 1990
  • Struck from the Navy Register 28 October 1990 and laid up in the Reserve Fleet
  • Sold for scrap 4 December 1992 to Seawitch Salvage of Baltimore, MD for $6,000.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 775 t.
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 78
  • Armament: One 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns - 20mm replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount
  • Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Fearless 129k Note damaged bow in this photo 102 Minesweeper Website
    Dick Lewis
    MINDIV-82 120k Ship's of Mine Division Eighty Two prepare to leave Charleston, SC for a Mediterranean deployment. MINDIV-82 ship's from left to right are: Fearless, Avenge (MSO 423), Exultant (MSO 441), the Belgium Minesweeper F. Bovesse (M 909) (ex-MSO-516), and Fidelity (MSO 443)
    Photo courtesy of Leroy D. "Mo" Mahoney
    Official U.S. Navy photo    		 Belgium MSO Website
    Fearless 72k U.S. Navy photo Robert M. Cieri
    Fearless 135k Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Fearless 420k c. 1960
    Turning away after being alongside Terrebonne Parish (LST 1156)    		 Nick Gardner, QM3 1959/1961 LST-1156
    Fearless 352k
    Fearless 310k
    Exultant 239k c. 1969/70
    Highlining with Exultant    		 Leland Rogers, RM3, Exultant crew member 1969/70
    Fearless 390k Grapple (ARS-53) tows the ocean minesweepers USS Inflict (MSO-456), Fearless and USS Illusive (MSO-448) to the Persian Gulf to support U.S. Navy escort operations. The ships departed Little Creek, VA., on 6 September 1987. Traveling via the Suez Canal and arriving in the Gulf of Oman on 2 November 1987. At the time, the 9,000-nautical-mile (17,000 km) trip was the longest distance three ships were towed by one
    U.S. Navy photo ID DN-ST-88-01143 by PH2 C. Duvall    		 Robert Hurst
    47k Illusive (MSO-448) in foreground with Fearless and Mount Vernon (LSD-39) in background. Mount Vernon was serving as a support vessel for the minesweepers in the Persian Gulf, 1987-88
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Darrell G. Miller USS Mount Vernon
    Fearless 638k c. 1988
    Fearless underway in the Mediterranean Sea. Fearless is part of the Naval Reserve Force North Atlantic. Impervious (MSO 449) is astern off her port quarter
    U.S. Navy photo DN-SN-89-07261 by J02 Hardman, USN    		 Robert Hurst
    Fearless 138k U.S. Navy photo by PH3 Thomas Petry, Fleet Imaging Detachment Charleston, SC from the January 1990 edition of All Hands magazine Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Commanding Officers
    01LT John Roberts, USN22 September 1954 - 14 March 1956
    02LCDR William S. Mayer, USN14 March 1956 - 8 March 1958
    03LCDR Rudolph Treat Bard, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 19468 March 1958 - 27 June 1959
    04LCDR James David Taylor, USN27 June 1959 - 9 September 1960
    05LCDR Frederick Ford Jewitt, II, USN - USNA Class of 19479 September 1960 - 3 December 1962
    06LCDR Hugo Ernst Schlüter, USN - USNA Class of 19523 December 1962 - 10 July 1964
    07LCDR James Granville Storms, III, USN - Awarded the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars with Combat V, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal and Combat Action Ribbon
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		10 July 1964 - 15 January 1966
    08LCDR Harry Edward Jellison, USN15 January 1966 - 13 July 1967
    09LCDR Paul Elliott Dodson, Jr., USN13 July 1967 - 1 October 1968
    10LT Carl Henry Dreyer, USN1 October 1968 - 31 August 1969
    11LT Matthew Donald Larson, USN31 August 1969 - 26 June 1970
    12LCDR Stephen Chapman Crooks, USN - USNA Class of 196226 June 1970 - 1 March 1972
    13LCDR David J. Grieve, USN1 March 1972 - 3 July 1973
    14LCDR James Gregory Prout, III, USN - USNA Class of 19663 July 1973 - 17 June 1975
    15LT Robert Bernard O'Donnell, USN17 June 1975 - 15 June 1977
    16LCDR Eugene A. Razzetti, USN15 June 1977 - 21 June 1979
    17LCDR Robert S. Carter, USN21 June 1979 - 15 August 1981
    18CDR David Reginald Shaw, USN15 August 1981 - 14 January 1983
    19CDR Mark Allen Rogers, USN - USNA Class of 197014 January 1983 - 8 March 1985
    20CDR Lutrelle Fleming Parker, Jr., USN8 March 1985 - 10 April 1987
    21CDR John Kirkland Ross, USN10 April 1987 - 21 May 1989
    22LCDR Gregory J. Cornish, USN21 May 1989 - 15 June 1990
    23LCDR Elliot Powell, Jr., USN15 June 1990 - 23 October 1990
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    View the Fearless (MSO-442)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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