USS Admirable (AM-136) |
|
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators: | United States Navy |
| Preceded by: | Hawk class minesweeper |
| Succeeded by: | Agile class minesweeper |
| Planned: | 147 |
| Completed: | 123 |
| Cancelled: | 24 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 625 tons |
| Length: | 184 ft 6 in (56.24 m) |
| Beam: | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Draft: | 10 ft (3.0 m) |
| Speed: | 15 knots (27.8 km/h) |
| Complement: | 104 officers and men |
| Armament: | 1 × 3"/50 caliber gun 4 × Bofors 40 mm gun 6 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 4 × Depth charge projectors 2 × Depth charge racks 2 × Minesweeping paravanes |
The Admirable class was the largest and one of the most successful classes of minesweepers the United States Navy ordered during World War II. Typically, the minesweeper detected and removed mines before the rest of the fleet arrived, thereby ensuring safe passage for the larger ships. They were also charged with antisubmarine warfare (ASW) duties with rear-mounted depth charge racks and a forward-firing Hedgehog. Their job was essential to the safety and success of U.S. naval operations during World War II and the Korean War. These minesweepers were also employed as patrol and escort vessels.
The USS Hazard (AM-240) is a museum ship on dry land in Omaha, Nebraska.
Famous quotes containing the words admirable and/or class:
“The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air- conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“History is full, down to this day, of the imbecility of kings and governors. They are a class of persons much to be pitied, for they know not what they should do.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)