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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Chatterer (MSC[O] 40)
ex-Chatterer (AMS 40)
ex-YMS-415



Call sign:
November - Papa - Uniform - Whiskey


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

  • The second Chatterer was laid down 5 October 1943 as YMS-415 by the Stadium Yacht Basin Inc., Cleveland, Ohio
  • Launched 15 April 1944
  • Completed and commissioned USS YMS-415, 1 October 1944
  • She was assigned to the Pacific, where she participated in operations off Okinawa in June 1945. Following the Japanese surrender, YMS-415 was active in mine clearance efforts in the vicinity of Japan
  • Named Chatterer and reclassified as a Motor Minesweeper, AMS-40, 11 March 1947
  • Stationed in Japan when the Korean War began in June 1950, Chatterer soon joined the effort to search for and clear enemy mine field's in the combat zone. She was retained in the Western Pacific after
    the conflict ended and was reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper, Old, MSC(O)-40, 7 February 1955
  • Transferred to Japan 16 April 1955 as Yurishima (MSC 661) in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force
  • Returned to the U.S. Navy in 1967
  • Sold for scrap 1 May 1968.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 270 t.
  • Length 136'
  • Beam 24' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 15 kts.
  • Complement 32
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts and two depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 800bhp 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
    YMS-415
    YMS-415 76k Fitting out at the Stadium Yacht Basin, Cleveland, Ohio, 10 July 1944
    National Archives photos 19-N-67889 and 19-N-67890 from the Bureau of Ships Collection    		 Robert Hurst
    YMS-415 25k
    USS YMS-415
    Chatterer 64k c. 1945-46
    San Francisco Bay
    U.S. Navy photo NH 79712    		 Naval Historical Center
    USS Chatterer (AMS 40)
    Chatterer 65k
    Namesake:

    Chatterer - Any of several passerine birds having a chattering cry, as certain waxwings and cotingas

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 11 December 2021
    YMS-415 163k Ships patch Tommy Trampp
    Incredible 125k Commanding Officers of Mine Division Thirty-one in conference off Korea, 26 October 1950. Probably taken in the wardroom of USS Incredible (AM 249) during minesweeping operations off Wonsan

    Those present are (from left to right):
    Lieutenant Edward P. Flynn, Commanding Officer of USS Incredible;
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Nicholas Grkovic, CO of USS Kite (AMS 22);
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Robert C. Fuller, CO of USS Partridge (AMS 31);
    Lieutenant Commander D'Arcy V. Shouldice, Commander, Mine Division 31;
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) T.R. Howard, CO of USS Redhead (AMS 34);
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) James P. McMahon, CO of Chatterer;
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Philip Levin, CO of USS Osprey (AMS 28) and
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Stanley P. Gary, CO of USS Mockingbird (AMS 27)
    National Archives photo 80-G-422081

    		 Robert Hurst
    Chatterer 146k Mine Division 31 tied up at Yokosuka, following mine clearance activities off Korea. From left to right: Merganser (AMS-26); Osprey (AMS-28); Chatterer, and
    Mockingbird (AMS-27)
    National Archives photo 80-G-424597 original photo dated 30 November 1950     		Naval Historical Center
    Defense 73k 8 October 1952
    Laertes (AR-20) at Sasebo, Japan, with nine minesweepers and a harbor tug alongside. Ships nested to left of Laertes are (from left): Impeccable (AM-320); Gladiator (AM-319); Shoveler (AM-382); Defense (AM-317), and Devastator (AM-318). Those nested to right are (from left): Condor (AMS-5); Kite (AMS-22); Curlew (AMS-8); Chatterer, and
    Wallacut (YTB-420)
    National Archives photo 80-G-63229
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Sam Howard Moore, USN - Awarded the Legion of Merit (1965) and the Navy Commendation Ribbon (1945)
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		1 October 1944 - December 1945
    02LTJG James David O'Shaughnessy, USNApril 1950
    03LTJG Ernest Staveley, USNApril 1950 - June 1950
    04LTJG James Patrick (Jim) McMahon, USNJune 1950 - 31 May 1951
    05LT Samuel Lorenz, Jr., USN31 May 1951 - June 1952
    06LT James Edgar Odom, Jr., USNJune 1952 - December 1952
    07LTJG Francis Joseph Beitzer, USNDecember 1952
    08LT Ralph A. Castle, USN1954 - 16 April 1955
    09LTJG Bruce Goodwin Stone, USNJune 1955
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    View the Chatterer (AMS-40)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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