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WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down 9 February 1953 as AM-439 at the Higgins Corp., New Orleans,
LA; Launched, 25 September 1953; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper (non-magnetic), MSO-439, 7 February 1955; Commissioned
USS Excel (MSO-439), 24 February 1955; Decommissioned, 30 September 1992; Struck from the Navy Register 28 March 1994; Laid
up in the Reserve Fleet; Sold for scrap to Crowley Marine in January 2000.
Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 8
Officers, 70 Enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns, final configuration, bow
gun removed, two .50 cal. machine guns remain; Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors
Co. diesels, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
These new minesweepers were smaller and built primarily of wood , with bronze and stainless (non-magnetic)
steel fittings to minimize their magnetic signature. All of the 1950 era MSOs had UQS-1 mine-locating sonar, later updated
with SQQ-14 sonar. MSOs were capable of sweeping for moored, bottom contact, magnetic and acoustic mines.
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| NOVEMBER LIMA PAPA ALPHA |
WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON MEN a book by CDR David D.Bruhn USN RET.The history of our MSO's
from 1953 to 1994. To learn more about this excellent minesweeper book please visit CDR Bruhn's website at the link below.
DAVID BRUHN
Sign the Log Read the Log
EMAIL
UPDATED:JUN 13 2008
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