AKA”Citrus Juliette”
List Of Commanding Offiers
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Lt. L.E. Martin (Commissioning)
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19 May 1954
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2 Dec 1955
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Lt. Richard C. Maurer
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2 Dec 1955
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30 Oct 1959
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LCdr. E. G. Fleeger
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1 Nov 1959
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8 Dec 60
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LCdr. J. F. Matejceck
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8 Dec 1960
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9 Apr 1962
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LCdr. Thomas H. Wood
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9 Apr 1962
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1 Nov 1963
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Lt. Marvin G. Smith, Jr (Cap’n. Jack)
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1 Nov 1963
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30 Dec 1964
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LCdr. Francis B. Shemanski
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1 Jan 1965
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12 July 1967
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LCdr. H.J. Sutphen
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12 Jul 1967
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28 Jun., 1969
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LCdr. Shlegelmilch
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28 Jun.,1969
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Nov., 1970
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LCdr. Don Stoufer
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Nov., 1970
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Oct., 1971
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LCdr., Isadore “Bud” Largue
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Oct., 1971
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Jan., 1972
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The second Endurance (AM-435) was launched 8 August 1952 by J. M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp., Tacoma, Wash.; sponsored by Miss Gerry A. Borovich; and commissioned 19 May 1954, Lieutenant L. E. Martin in command. She was reclassified MSO-435 on 7 February 1955.
On 21 April 1954, Endurance arrived at Long Beach, Calif., her home port, and began training operations along the southern coast of California. In July 1955 she made a good will cruise to Acapulco, Mexico, returning to local duty on exercises, drills, and operations with ships of other types. Endurance made her first cruise to the Far East between August 1957 and February 1958, during which she exercised with ships of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and the navy of the Republic of China. Her second tour of duty in the Far East, from January through July 1960, included minesweeping exercises at Okinawa, and another period of assistance to the Chinese navy in developing their modern mine warfare techniques. Arriving at Long Beach on 19 July, the remainder of the year was given to operations and ship overhaul. [Transcribers Note: Endurance was stricken 1 July 1972 and disposed of by Navy sale December 1973.]
Assistance for the men and women of the Armed Forces
Business loans for veterans
Veterans financial aid
Home loans for veterans
The WesPac Tour
During the 1950s and early 1960s a division of four MSOs spent approximately 6 months in WesPac on rotation with the other divisions of MSOs that were stationed on the West Coast. About every year and ½ to two years each division would take their turn crossing the Pacific in about 30 days and then spend 6 months Home-Ported in Sasebo. After that 6 months they would spend another 30 days crossing the Pacific and return to their Home Port of Long Beach, California. This tour commenced with each MSO loading approximately 50+ 55 gallon drums of fuel onto the fantail and setting sail for Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. After about three days in Pearl they would sail for Midway Island, spending about a day there to prepare for the trip to Yokosuka, Japan, again with 50+, 55 gallon drums of fuel on the fantail. After a few days in Yokosuka to recover and repair any critical sea damage, the division would proceed South around Shikoku Island and through the Shimoniseki Straits at Kitakyushu, past the city of Fukuoka and on south to Sasebo, the home port of MinRon 3 and MinFlot 1. There, the MSOs usually tied up on the Western side of India Basin, while the MSCs tied up on the Eastern side near the Commodore’s offices.
Getting enough fuel to make it to WesPac
In the early days (1959-60) MSOs needed to carry more fuel than their onboard tanks could hold, in order to be sure of reaching Pearl Harbor from Long Beach or Yokosuka. The answer was to load 50+, 55 gallon drums of fuel on the fantail and secure them with the sweep wires to prevent their coming loose in rough weather. Woe unto the fantail that got 55 gallon drums of fuel rolling around in heavy seas. It was necessary to pump the fuel into the onboard tanks as quickly as possible to reduce the number of days with full drums. So the deckhands and the FNs would pump down a drum of fuel as soon as there was room in the tanks.
However, we had to be carefull to empty the drums in the center of the group first, since once a drum was empty its structural integrity was weakened and the sweep wire strain in the center of the drum could crush an empty drum much more easily and loosen the tension on the wires, allowing the drums to start shifting. If the Boatswain’s Mate didn’t think of this early on, a great deal of damage could occur.
The following pictures give one a rough idea what it took to load 50+ drums onto the fantail, one by one. The next day we had a very tired deck force.
This had to be done 50+ times, twice (once in Yokosuka or Long Beach and once in Pearl) for each crossing to or from WesPac.
While the “BLOB” simplified the loading and carrying of the extra fuel, it did add one problem. Since the cell had to be either FULL or EMPTY (a partially full cell would allow the fuel to “slosh” around in heavy seas and drastically alter the “Center of Gravity” above the waterline and create excessive stress to the hold down pads that were part of the “BLOB”) the onboard tanks had to be empty enough to accept the entire 2700+ gallons of fuel, all at once. Therefore the entire weight of the fuel remained on the fantail for more days than with the drums, suffering more days of heavy seas and straining the structural integrity of the bulkheads. But it was still a better solution.
Details of Moored Mine Sweeping
Water Kites (Otters) deploy the sweep wires and cutters down to the required depth and out to the Port &/or Starboard side of the ship. The length of the depressor wire and the length of the Float Pendant, determine the depth of the Sweep Wire. The Port & Starboard Sweep Wires are six strands of seven individual extruded stainless steel wires, wound around a seventh inner core strand of seven wires. One pair of individual wires in the six surrounding strands, is reverse wound to provide a “ROUGH” surface to assist in abraiding moored mine anchor cables. The Port and Starboard Sweep Wires outer strands are wound around the inner core in opposite directions so that the “COIL” of the winding will provide a “Hydro-Plane” effect which assists in keeping the Sweep Wire from sagging in the center between the Depressor and the Outboard Otter.
What a Moored Mine looks like before being placed in the water
What a Moored Mine looks like in the water.
When a Moored Mine is launched from the Minelayer, as it leaves the launching ramp, the bouyant Mine is released to float above the Anchor and the solid iron Plummet drops below the anchor. The Plummet cable length has been set to the depth that the Mine is to be floating below the surface of the water. The Anchor cable is on a reel that allows it to pay out until the plummet strikes bottom. When the Plummet hits bottom it releases tension from the Cable reel brake and locks the reel in place. The weight of the Anchor then pulls the Mine under water the distance of the Plummet cable. In this way, no matter the depth of the water (as long as it is less than the length of the Cable) the Mine will float the preset depth below the surface. Shallow Mines 6-12 feet deep) are intended to sink Minesweepers. Medium depth Mines (20 -60 feet) are intended to sink large ships. Deep Mines (80-200 feet) are intended to sink submarines. In the above graphic, the mine has an extension that floats above the mine, allowing it to cover both a shallow and a medium depth or a deep and a shallow depth.
Wooden Ships and Iron Men
rom 1953 to 1994, sixty-five U.S. Navy ocean minesweepers (MSOs) swept mines; searched the seafloor for downed aircraft, sunken ships, and lost munitions; “showed the flag” throughout the world, even sailing up the Congo and Mekong Rivers, calling at dozens of the world’s seaports; and carried out patrols and special tasks off strife-torn or hostile countries. Some participated in the 1962 nuclear test program in the Pacific and in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. Others, as part of a U.S. armada of military and civilian research ships at Palomares, located a nuclear bomb lost on the seafloor off Spain as a result of a midair collision between two U.S. Air Force aircraft. Iron men in wooden ships were with the Fleet in hotspots around the world, including Lebanon and the Quemoy-Matsu islands of Taiwan in 1958; the Dominican Republic in 1961 and 1965; and the Cuban Missile Crisis and Haiti in 1962. During the Vietnam War, minesweepers participated in Operation MARKET TIME to prevent the infiltration of North Vietnamese soldiers and munitions into South Vietnam. Leader received the Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism in Operation SEA LORDS; Endurance engaged in close gun action with and helped destroy an enemy armed trawler in a sea battle; and MSOs cleared mines in Haiphong Harbor, which aided in the negotiations in progress for the return of U.S. prisoners of war. During the twilight of their service in the late 1980s and early 1990s, aging sweeps cleared Iranian- and Iraqi-laid mines in the Persian Gulf.
Richard DeRosset’s painting of the battle between the Endurance and a VC Trawler
Richard DeRosset’s “Sea Battle off the Cua Co Chien River Mouth” depicts the heroic sea battle in 1970 between the USS Endurance (MSO 435) and a larger, faster and more heavily armed Viet Cong steel-hulled vessel. A copy of it will be used for the dust jacket of Cdr. David Bruhn’s forth coming book “Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The U.S. Navy’s Ocean Minesweepers, 1953-1994″ Persons interested in obtaining a reproduction of the painting may contact the artist at the below address for details:
Richard DeRosset
1914 El Prado
Lemon Grove, CA 91945
USS Pirate (AM-275) and USS Pledge (AM-277), Loss of; 12 October 1950
More info: Naval Historical Center at http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq103-1.htm
On 14 August 1950, the U.S. Navy recommissioned USS Pirate (AM 275) to serve in the Korean War, which had begun the previous June with the North Korean invasion of South Korea. During her service in the war, Pirate served as a minesweeper off the east coast of Korea. On 12 October 1950, Pirate and Pledge, along with several other ships, were sweeping the area of the Wonsan Harbor near Sin-Do island. During their sweeping activities, Pirate and Pledge were alerted of the presence of several mines and that the first confirmed mine position was close to them. As Pirate was turning to change her course, she struck a mine. Then several moments later the same fate befell USS Pledge (AM 277). Although they sank, Pirate and Pledge helped to clear the waters allowing the UN ships better access to Wonsan harbor and the continuation of their attack on North Korea.
Courtesy of Tony Segarra
