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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Al Grazevich


Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Fortify (MSO-446)
ex-AM-446



Call sign:
November - Quebec - Tango - November
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 30 November 1951 by the Seattle Shipbuilding and Drydocking Co., Seattle, WA
  • Launched 19 February 1953
  • Commissioned USS Fortify (AM-446), 16 July 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-446, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 31 August 1992
  • Struck from the Naval Register 9 March 1994 and laid up in the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Portsmouth, VA
  • Sold for scrap 4 December 2000 to Baltimore Marine Industries of Baltimore, MD.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 775 t.
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 78
  • Armament: As built, one 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal machine guns. Final configuration, bow gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remain
  • 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
    USS Fortify (MSO 446)
    Fortify 210k - Courtesy Dick Lewis
    102 Minesweeper Website
    Detector 78k Detector (MSO 429) and Fortify
    U.S. Navy photo from All Hands magazine    		 Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Fortify, Engage & Impervious 246k Fortify, Engage (MSO 433), and Impervious (MSO 449) steaming with an unidentified minesweeper Tom Lawson
    Engage/Fortify/Impervious 538k Portland, Oregon
    Engage (MSO 433), Fortify and Impervious (AM 449) at the Rose Festival Fleet Week    		 Tommy Trampp
    Fortify 160k U.S. Navy photo Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Fortify 115k Pearl Harbor, HI
    Inflict (MSO 456), Loyalty (MSO 457) and Fortify
    Fortify/Engage 26k c. Summer 1960
    Fortify and Engage anchored at Hong Kong
    Photo taken from Inflict (MSO 456) by Floyd Farrar    		 Floyd Farrar
    Fortify 46k c. Summer 1960
    Stormy transit of the Formosa Straits
    Photo taken from Inflict (MSO 456) by Floyd Farrar
    Engage 316k 13 December 1966
    Mine Division 71 Welcome Home pamphlet    		 Tom Nutt
    Engage 173k
    Engage 169k
    Engage 181k
    Fidelity 513k c. April 1978
    Approach to NAS Jacksonville, FL
    On marine railway with Fidelity (MSO 443) moored to pier    		 ©Richard Leonhardt
    Fortify 579k 6 July 1981
    Chesapeake Bay
    A port beam view of Fortify underway, departing Chesapeake Bay with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the background
    U.S. Navy photo DN-SC-87-05380    		 Robert M. Cieri
    Fortify 360k 2 June 1982
    Norfolk, VA
    An aerial starboard bow view of the ocean minesweeper Fortify steaming to Naval Station Norfolk
    U.S. Navy photo DN-ST-82-07255 by PH3 K. J. Berkeihiser
    Fortify 357k 4 May 1989
    Chesapeake Bay    		 © Atlantic Fleet Sales
    Nobe Smith
    Fortify 443k 1 May 1992
    Simulating sweeping an area off the coast of Camp Lejeune, NC, during joint military exercise Ocean Venture '92
    U.S. Navy photo DN-ST-92-08157 by JO2 William G. Davis, III    		 Robert Hurst
    Fortify
    Fortify 101k A view of a portion of the mothball fleet in storage near Portsmouth, VA, 18 October 1994. In the back of the basin is two patrol missile hydrofoil patrol boats of the Pegasus class, three ocean minesweepers, Fortify and two others, the fleet tugs Paiute (ATF-159), Papago (ATF-160) and the salvage vessel Recovery (ARS-43)
    Defense Visual Information Center photo DNSC9501404 by Don S. Montgomery    		 Defense Visual Information Center
    Fortify 49k At Baltimore Marine Industries, awaiting scrapping
    Photo courtesy of James Maher, USS Fortify    		 Tommy Trampp
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Robert Juarez, USN16 July 1954 - 28 May 1955
    02LCDR Herbert Anker May, USN28 May 1955 - 30 May 1956
    03LCDR Herman Keith Hopper, USN30 May 1956 - 1 May 1957
    04LCDR Robert Joseph Tartre, USN - USNA Class of 19451 May 1957 - 8 August 1959
    05LCDR Willis Ellsworth Meekins, USN8 August 1959 - 24 November 1961
    06LCDR James Ruppert Switzer, USN24 November 1961 - 16 September 1963
    07LCDR Mark Hopkins, Jr., USN16 September 1963 - 15 January 1965
    08LT/LCDR Stewart Andrew Ring, USN - Awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal, four Legions of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		15 January 1965 - 27 July 1966
    09LCDR Morris Lee "Hoppy" Humphrey, USN27 July 1966 - 22 February 1968
    10LT/LCDR Gerrish Cecil Flynn, USN22 February 1968 - 6 November 1968
    11LT James Sydenham Park, USN6 November 1968 - 10 January 1969
    12LT Martin Ridley Hamilton, II, USN - USNA Class of 196510 January 1969 - January 1970
    13LTJG Robert Edward Griswold, USN (Acting)January 1970 - February 1970
    14LT Martin Ridley Hamilton, II, USN - USNA Class of 1965February 1970 - 26 June 1970
    15LT Milton Leroy Senft, USN26 June 1970 - 24 August 1970
    16LCDR Richard John Fromholtz, USN24 August 1970 - May 1972
    17LCDR Harry Augustus Seymour, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1965May 1972 - 21 September 1973
    18LCDR John Dwight Jackson, USN21 September 1973 - December 1975
    19LCDR Winfield S. Thompson, Jr., USNDecember 1975 - May 1977
    20LCDR Joseph CeRue Harper, USN - USNA Class of 1965May 1977 - 29 September 1978
    21LCDR Burton Whitmon Renager, Jr., USN29 September 1978 - 30 September 1980
    22LCDR Francis Kevin Holian, USN - USNA Class of 1968
    Awarded the Legion of Merit, two Meritorious Service Medals, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V and the Navy Achievement Medal - Retired as Rear Admiral    		30 September 1980 - 30 September 1982
    23LCDR Andrew Michael Petruska, III, USN30 September 1982 - 14 May 1985
    24LCDR John E. Romann, USN14 May 1985 - 19 May 1986
    25LCDR Robert Juston Cox, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral19 May 1986 - 26 January 1988
    26CDR David Edward Myers, USN26 January 1988 - September 1988
    27CDR Francis Dominic DeMasi, USNSeptember 1988 - 31 August 1988
    28LCDR Thomas R. Hanley, USN31 August 1988 - 20 December 1988
    29LCDR Roderick Edwin Trice, USN20 December 1988 - 11 July 1990
    30LCDR Duncan Gordon McLean, USN11 July 1990 - 20 July 1990
    31LCDR John Louis Ash, USN20 July 1990 - 31 August 1992
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves, Bill Gonyo and Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    View the Fortify (MSO-446)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Websites of Interest
    102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Ocean Minesweeper (MSO) Photo Index
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