USS Skill (MSO-471)

USS Skill (MSO-471) was an Aggressive-class minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of removing mines that had been placed in the water to prevent the safe passage of ships.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Skill.
History
Name: USS Skill
Builder: Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford, Connecticut
Laid down: 17 August 1953, as AM-471
Launched: 3 April 1955
Commissioned: 7 November 1955
Decommissioned: October 1970
Reclassified: MSO-471 (Ocean Minesweeper), 7 February 1955
Fate: Sold for scrapping, 1 April 1979.
General characteristics
Class and type: Aggressive-class minesweeper
Displacement:
  • 630 long tons (640 t) light
  • 755 long tons (767 t) full load
Length: 172 ft (52 m)
Beam: 36 ft (11 m)
Draft: 10 ft (3 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 6 officers, 74 enlisted
Armament:
  • 1 × single 40 mm gun mount (later replaced by 1 × twin 20 mm gun mount)
  • 2 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) twin Browning M2 machine guns

Skill was the second U.S. Navy vessel of that name. It was an ocean minesweeper, laid down by Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford, Connecticut, on 17 August 1953 under the designation AM-471; redesignated MSO-471 on 7 February 1955; launched on 3 April 1955; sponsored by Mrs. John C. Niedermair; and commissioned on 7 November 1955, Lt. Robert A. Latka in command.

Atlantic Ocean operations

Skill conducted shakedown training off the Atlantic coast before reporting for duty with the Mine Force, Atlantic Fleet, at Charleston, South Carolina, on 19 December 1955.

During her 15 years of active service with the Navy, the minesweeper served with the Atlantic and 6th Fleets. She operated out of Charleston throughout her career, when not deployed to the Mediterranean. Skill operated with the 6th Fleet in the "middle sea" in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, and 1968. Skill participated in the recovery effort of the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash in early 1966.[1] In late May 1968, during the return voyage from her last Mediterranean deployment, Skill participated in the unsuccessful search for the nuclear submarine, USS Scorpion (SSN-589).

Decommissioning

Skill spent all of 1969 around Charleston, South Carolina, and most of it at the Detyens Shipyard being repaired. Skill was finally decommissioned and placed in reserve in October 1970. She was berthed at Beaumont, Texas, as a unit of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until sold for scrap by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service on 1 April 1979.

Notes
  1. Melson, June 1967, p.31
gollark: They'll probably say "lambdas are evil" because python hates functional programming a lot of the time.
gollark: *considers creating an esowiki page for haskell and golang*
gollark: ``` func AddInt32(addr *int32, delta int32) (new int32) func AddInt64(addr *int64, delta int64) (new int64) func AddUint32(addr *uint32, delta uint32) (new uint32) func AddUint64(addr *uint64, delta uint64) (new uint64) func AddUintptr(addr *uintptr, delta uintptr) (new uintptr) func CompareAndSwapInt32(addr *int32, old, new int32) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapInt64(addr *int64, old, new int64) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapPointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer, old, new unsafe.Pointer) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapUint32(addr *uint32, old, new uint32) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapUint64(addr *uint64, old, new uint64) (swapped bool) func CompareAndSwapUintptr(addr *uintptr, old, new uintptr) (swapped bool) func LoadInt32(addr *int32) (val int32) func LoadInt64(addr *int64) (val int64) func LoadPointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer) (val unsafe.Pointer) func LoadUint32(addr *uint32) (val uint32) func LoadUint64(addr *uint64) (val uint64) func LoadUintptr(addr *uintptr) (val uintptr) func StoreInt32(addr *int32, val int32) func StoreInt64(addr *int64, val int64) func StorePointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer, val unsafe.Pointer) func StoreUint32(addr *uint32, val uint32) func StoreUint64(addr *uint64, val uint64) func StoreUintptr(addr *uintptr, val uintptr) func SwapInt32(addr *int32, new int32) (old int32) func SwapInt64(addr *int64, new int64) (old int64) func SwapPointer(addr *unsafe.Pointer, new unsafe.Pointer) (old unsafe.Pointer) func SwapUint32(addr *uint32, new uint32) (old uint32) func SwapUint64(addr *uint64, new uint64) (old uint64) func SwapUintptr(addr *uintptr, new uintptr) (old uintptr)```Seen in standard library docs.
gollark: Fun fact: that function cannot be written with a sane type in Go.
gollark: Esolang where multiple different garbage collectors run at the same time.

References
  • Melson, Lewis B., CAPT USN (June 1967). "Contact 261". United States Naval Institute Proceedings. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
  • Photo gallery of USS Skill (AM-471/MSO-471) at NavSource Naval History
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