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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Firecrest (AMS-10, later MSC(O)-10), 1943-1955, originally named YMS-231

USS YMS-231, a 320-ton auxiliary motor minesweeper built at Boothbay Harbor, Maine, was commissioned in August 1943. Following service in World War II, she was placed out of commission in about February 1947, the month in which she was reclassified as a motor minesweeper (AMS) and renamed Firecrest (AMS-10).

Firecrest returned to service in the later 1940s. She was sent to Korea after war broke out there in 1950 and operated in the combat zone until the shooting war ended in July 1953. The ship remained in the Far East afterwards. In February 1955, she was reclassified as a coastal minesweeper and redesignated MSC(O)-10. A month later, Firecrest was loaned to Japan. She served as the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweeper Eta Jima until 1967 and was disposed of as a target in August 1968.

This page features all our views of USS Firecrest (AMS-10).

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 96992

USS Firecrest (AMS-10)


In a Japanese port, 3 September 1952.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 96993

USS Firecrest (AMS-10)


Ship's Company on the forecastle, 3 September 1952.
Firecrest is alongside two other minesweepers and a tender.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 164KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 96994

USS Firecrest (AMS-10)


Ship's Company in "Blues", circa 1952.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 68589

USS LST-735
(at right)

Serving as "mother ship" for seven minesweepers, probably in a Japanese port, circa 1952-54.
Ships nested alongside are (from left):
USS Gull (AMS-16);
USS Firecrest (AMS-10);
USS Condor (AMS-5);
USS Merganser (AMS-26);
USS Osprey (AMS-28);
USS Competent (AM-316) and
USS Chief (AM-315).

Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute, James C. Fahey Collection.

Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 


The ship in the following photograph has been identified in a published work as USS Firecrest, though its original catalog information identifies it as another ship:

Photo #: 80-G-478497

Korean War Minesweeping


USS Mockingbird (AMS-27) explodes an enemy mine in the Chinnampo area, off North Korea's Yellow Sea coast. Original photo is dated 3 March 1953.

NOTE: This photo has also been published with the ship identified as USS Firecrest (AMS-10). See Cagle and Manson: "The Sea War in Korea", photo spread between pages 108 & 109.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold a few other views of USS Firecrest. The following list features two of these images.

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".



  • Photo #: USN 1045784
    USS Firecrest (AMS-10) underway during the mid-1950s, after removal of her forward gun.
    Port bow surface view. This photograph was received in December 1959.

  • Photo #: USN 1045509
    USS Firecrest (AMS-10) underway circa the late 1940s or early 1950s.
    Port stern surface view. This photograph was received in December 1959.


    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    21 September 1999