History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Ordered | as M/V Maine |
Laid down | 25 October 1930 |
Launched | 7 April 1931 |
Acquired | 13 August 1940 |
Commissioned | 22 November 1940 |
Decommissioned | 12 January 1945 |
Stricken | 19 January 1945 |
Fate | Transferred to Norway |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | 520 tons |
Length | 132 ft 4 in (40.34 m) |
Beam | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
Draught | 13 ft (4.0 m) |
Propulsion | one Fairbanks Morse diesel engine, 550shp, one shaft |
Speed | 10 kts |
Complement | unknown |
Armament | one single 3 in (76 mm) gun mount |
USS Bluebird (AM-72) was an Albatross-class minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II for clearing minefields during fleet operations.
M/V Maine—a steel-hulled fishing trawler constructed in 1931 at Bath, Maine, by Bath Iron Works—was purchased by the Navy on 13 August 1940 from the Booth Fisheries Co., Boston, Massachusetts; renamed Bluebird and designated a minesweeper, AM-72, on 14 August 1940; converted to naval service at Boston, Massachusetts, by the General Ship & Engineering Works; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 22 November 1940.