The ''Adjutant''-class
auxiliary motor minesweepers
Auxiliary motor minesweepers were small wood-hulled minesweepers commissioned by the United States Navy for service during World War II. The vessels were numbered, but unnamed. The auxiliary motor minesweepers were originally designated yard min ...
were built for the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
throughout the 1950s and 1960s, even as late as 1978. Most were loaned to foreign countries under the
Military Defense Assistance Pact, with only 24 actually commissioned by the US Navy, with 13 of those eventually being transferred to foreign nations as well. Initially classified as auxiliary motor minesweepers (AMS), on 7 February 1955, they were reclassified as
coastal minesweeper Coastal minesweeper is a term used by the United States Navy to indicate a minesweeper intended for coastal use as opposed to participating in fleet operations at sea.
Because of its small size—usually less than 100 feet in length—and construct ...
s (minesweeper, coastal) (MSC).
Design
The ''Adjutant''-class minesweepers were of a wooden construction with brass and stainless steel fittings to reduce magnetic attraction. The rated
displacement
Displacement may refer to:
Physical sciences
Mathematics and Physics
* Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
was light and at full load, though the ships of the ''Redwing'' class show a displacement of and the ''Albatross'' class show a displacement of . They were
between the perpendiculars with an
overall length
The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...
of . They had a
beam of with a
draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...
.
Half of the US ships used four
Packard diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
s. The rest and most of the ships built for use by foreign nations used two
General Motors 8-268A diesel engines.
Classes
The first ship of the class was to be USS ''Adjutant'' (AMS-60). However, the name ''Adjutant'' was canceled and the ship was transferred to the
Portuguese Navy
The Portuguese Navy ( pt, Marinha Portuguesa, also known as ''Marinha de Guerra Portuguesa'' or as ''Armada Portuguesa'') is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Port ...
as ''Ponta Delgada'' (M 405). The first ship
commissioned by the US Navy was . This is where the US ships got their class name. With slight changes in design, some of the ships are referred to by other class names, such as ''Falcon'' class, ''Redwing'' class, ''Albatross'' class, or even under ''Adjutant'' class.
While in the service of foreign navies they could be referred to under other class names:
Ships in class
Citations
Bibliography
Online resources
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Book resources
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External links
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{{Adjutant class minesweeper
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Mine warfare vessel classes
Ship classes of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy
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