BYMS class minesweeper
Encyclopedia
The BYMS class was a class
Ship class
A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....
of wooden motor minesweeper
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
s, part of the US Navy YMS Yard class minesweepers. 150 ships destined for UK were launched from 1941 to 1943.
The initial 80 ships were ordered by the U.S. Navy specifically for transfer to the United Kingdom under the Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
Programme. On transfer to Britain, BYMS-1 to BYMS-80 were assigned the British pennant number
Pennant number
In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers...
s BYMS-2001 to BYMS-2080. Names were not assigned to the class members.
A further 53 BYMS bore hull numbers from 137 to 284. These were originally built for the U.S. Navy as part of the YMS class and transferred to Britain on, or shortly after, completion. On the Navy List
Navy List
A Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a country....
they were designated BYMS, with their original U.S. Navy numbers. The remaining 17 BYMS vessels were delivered in a final batch.
Calypso
Jacques Cousteau's well-known ship Calypso was originally built by the Ballard Marine Railway Company of Seattle, Washington, USAUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She was a BYMS Mark 1 Class Motor Minesweeper, laid down on 12 August 1941 with the yard designation BYMS-26 and launched on 21 March 1942. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in February 1943 as HMS J-826 and assigned to active service in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, redesignated as BYMS-2026 in 1944, laid up at Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
and finally struck from the Naval Register in 1947.