Calling all Minesweeper fans

[Laurent]

The MSIs were pretty worthless. They bobbed around in the ocean like corks. They were underpowered and had a single screw that made maneuvering difficult. Top speed was 13 knots with a tailwind.

Ours where twin engineered on two propellers, with V12 Man Diesel engines, and when good tuned, they could reach 16 knots.

this is the only one I sailed on when I graduated from the engineering school, as a 19 years old PO:



Yes, I got seasick, there were no showers, no hot water, and that stench when you went at sea, when all that oil in the bilges began to move around.

But it was fun, and getting out all that minesweeping gear out was quite an adventure (LL electric sweep, "Oropesa"mechanical sweep, "IV Victor" acoustic hammer), the front winch used to put out half that gear was hand operated!

The funniest part was to turn around in formation to sweep further on your "box"...

This was back in 1984, memories-memories...

[DrPR]

The anchor winch on the MSIs was hand cranked - everyone took a turn, even the CO. We didn't drop anchor unless it was absolutely necessary!

Our big gun was a 50 caliber. It was mounted on the rail forward and used to shoot at any mines that popped up in front of us when a ship ahead cut them from their moorings. I had a Browning Automatic Rifle and I was supposed to stand atop the pilot house and shoot at any mines that came in close.

We had paravane type sweep gear port and starboard, a magtail and a towed noise generator.

The power plant was four GMC 6-72 diesels ganged onto a single clutch that drove the prop shaft. The propeller and prop shaft weighed far more than the engines. When we wanted to stop we had to disengage the clutch and then use a brake band around the shaft to stop the shaft. This wasn't easy because the propeller "windmilling" through the water generated a lot of force - enough to turn the engines over backwards, and the 6-72s were quite happy to run backwards. It took two or three guys leaning on the brake lever to eventually stop the shaft. Only then could we shift into reverse gear, engage the clutch and use the engines to reverse the prop. All of this took about five minutes, and that precluded any emergency reversing of the prop.

Below six knots we lost steerageway. So pulling up to a pier was an adventure. We had to plan it carefully so the ship was aimed correctly before we lost steerageway and water resistance slowed us almost to a stop before we reached the pier.

It was a lot easier driving the 610 foot long 15,000 ton cruiser with four props than the 112 foot minesweeper!

Phil

[dhenning]

Does anyone have any photos or drawings of the depth charge racks for the k-guns on a YMS sweeper? The very basic layouts that I have found indicate that they were not the L shaped type common on destroyers and Admirable class sweepers, but more of a rack that laid at a right angle to the k-gun, usually holding 4 depth charges. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest]

Roumanian Navy M-40 class minesweeper

[MUGUR]

Roumanian MUSCA class minesweeper

[MUGUR]

Roumanian navy river minesweepers

[MUGUR]

Roumanian navy 255k class minesweeper

[MUGUR]

Bulgarian Navy EVGENYA class minesweepers (project 1258)

[MUGUR]

Bulgarian Navy Sonya class minesweeper BGS PRIBOY in june 2009

[MUGUR]

Bulgarian navy VANYA class minesweepers

[MUGUR]

Bulgarian navy PO-2 class minesweeper





Bulgarian navy OLYA class minsweeper

[MUGUR]

FUGAS class soviet coastal minesweepers during WWII (Black Sea)

[Michael Potter]

Re: FUGAS class soviet coastal minesweepers during WWII (Black Sea)

Interesting photograph. If the location is the Black Sea then the battleship in the background is Parizhskaya Kommuna / Sevastopol.

[MUGUR]

Roumanian MUSCA class minesweeper are loading mine during an exercise.
The mine is the M.M.M.C.A.-1 type.

[Patman]

Thank you Mugur for the great pictures!

[MUGUR]

Thank you very much, Patman!

French frigate JEAN BART and a roumanian navy MUSCA class minesweeper during an execise (Black Sea, may 2016).

JEAN BART in Constanta harbor (may 2016)

[Story]

The WW2 German R�umboote. This is R-199 (from the R151�217 series, 125 tons & 35.4 m) built from 1940�43



R147, from the slightly-shorter prior series


See also http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ ... ter/rboat/

[MUGUR]

From NATO allied maritime command:

"BLACK SEA -- The ships of Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group Two (SNMCMG2) are participating in Romanian exercise Poseidon March 5-13, 2017 to increase Alliance navy interoperability and enhance the Alliance�s ability to neutralize underwater hazards.

The exercise as a whole is hosted by Romania this year and will include more than 1,500 sailors and 17 warships from seven NATO member states. In addition a navy helicopter, two dive boats, a coast guard vessel and two MiG 21 aircraft from the Romanian Air Forces will provide added complexity to the exercise.

Exercise Poseidon is designed to enhance the open cooperation of navies for ensuring safe navigation routes with a focus on discovery and neutralization of underwater hazards such as sea mines.

"Poseidon 2017 is a Romanian-Bulgarian annual bilateral exercise, carried out with the participation of naval and land forces through which we practice NATO tactics, techniques and standard procedures, to increase interoperability,� said Chief of Staff of the Romanian Naval Forces Rear Admiral Alexander Mirsu at the exercise opening ceremony in Constanta, Romania. "NATO exercises in the Black Sea of the bordering countries are not provocative or offensive. They are complex and carry a message of friendship and pursue interoperability growth.�

SNMCMG2 is led by Commander Aleksander Urbanowicz, Polish Navy, and comprised of Polish flagship ORP Kontradmiral Xawery Czernicki, Spanish minehunter ESPS Duero, German minesweeper FGS Rottweil, Turkish mine hunter TCG Alanya and Romanian ROS Slt. Alexandru Axente.

Exercise Poseidon began in 2015 as a bilateral Romanian-Bulgarian naval exercise. The host for the exercise alternates each year between Romania and Bulgaria. NATO Standing Groups regularly participate in exercises in the Black Sea to support interoperability, practice NATO standard procedures, tactics and techniques with Allied nations bordering the Black Sea".

[MUGUR]

The logistical support ship of the Polish Navy 511- ORP Kontradmira? Xawery Czernicki is the flag ship of the SNMCMG2 (NATO�s standing mine counter measures group two). She also arrived in Constanta harbor for POSEIDON 2017.

Displacement: 2,390
Length: 73.8 m (242 ft 2 in)
Beam: 13.8 m (45 ft 3 in)
Draft: 5.6 m (18 ft 4 in)
Speed: 14.1 knots (26.1 km/h/16.2 mph)
Armament:
1 � short range antiaircraft complex ZU-23-2MR Wr�bel-II
1 � II 23 mm (0.91 in) cannon with 1xII Strela 2M missile launcher)
Bldr.: Nothern Shipyard Gdansk
Commissioned:September 1, 2001
picture from roumanian navy, march 2017

[MUGUR]

A few pictures from march 8, 2017. Roumanian sailors launch mines from the minesweeper No.25. The mine is roumanian built M.M.M.C.A.-1 (a variant of soviet KB-1 mine).
pictures from roumanian navy