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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Firecrest (MSC[O] 10)
ex-Firecrest (AMS 10)
ex-YMS-231



Call sign:
November - Charlie - Papa - Yankee


Firecrest served the Navies of the United States and Japan.
YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper:

  • Laid down, 5 October 1942 by Frank L. Sample, Jr., Boothbay Harbor, Maine
  • Launched, 3 April 1943
  • Completed and commissioned USS YMS-231, 6 August 1943
  • Decommissioned in February 1947 at San Diego, CA
  • Named Firecrest and reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-10, 18 February 1947
  • Firecrest returned to service in the later 1940s. She was sent to Korea in 1950 and operated in the combat zone until the shooting ended in July 1953. Firecrest continued to serve in the Far East after
    the war
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper, Old, MSC(O)-10, 7 February 1955
  • Transferred to Japan 15 March 1955 and renamed Eta Jima (MSC 656)
  • Returned to U. S. custody in 1967
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 31 March 1967
  • Disposed of as a target in August 1969.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 15 kts.
  • Complement 32
  • Armament: One 3"/50 gun mount, two 20mm mounts and two depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 880bhp General Motors 8-268A diesel engines, Snow and Knobstedt single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Firecrest 34k
    Namesake:

    Firecrest - A small European kinglet

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 17 December 2021
    Firecrest 89k Firecrest in a Japanese port, 3 September 1952
    US Navy photo NH 96992    		 Naval Historical Center
    Firecrest 237k Ship's Company on the forecastle, 3 September 1952
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 96993    		 Russ Padden
    Firecrest 162k Ship's Company in "Blues", circa 1952
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 96994
    Firecrest 76k c. 1953
    Korea    		 Wayne Schafer
    Heron 48k c. March 1953
    Heron (AMS 18) and Firecrest in dry dock at Yokosuka, Japan
    AMS-5 Condor/LST-735 Dukes County 88k Dukes County (LST 735) serving as mother ship for seven minesweepers, probably in a Japanese port, circa 1952-54. Ships nested alongside are: Gull (AMS-16); Firecrest; Condor (AMS-5); Merganser (AMS-26); Osprey (AMS-28); Competent (AM-316);, and Chief (AM-315)
    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute, James C. Fahey Collection
    U.S. Navy photo NH 68589    		 Naval Historical Center
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Robert Barr Smith, USN1950 - September 1951
    02LT Alfred Clarence Sharp, USNSeptember 1951 - 28 April 1952
    03LT Chester Eugene Elliott, USN28 April 1952 - February 1953
    04LTJG Alexander Malcolm Sinclair, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral1953
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Firecrest (MSC[O] 10)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper (YMS) Photo Index Back to the Motor Minesweeper (AMS) Photo Index Back to the Coastal Minesweeper (MSC) Photo Index
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