USS Vital (AM-129)

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For other ships of the same name, see USS Vital.
Career USN Jack
Laid down: 1 January 1942
Launched: 7 September 1942
Completed: 18 May 1943
Reclassified: HMS Strenuous (J.338)
Returned to U.S. Navy: 10 December 1946 and renamed USS Strenuous (AM-129),
Fate: Declared surplus 23 April 1947
Disposition: Entered merchant service, then scrapped.
General characteristics
Class: Auk (metal-hulled fleet minesweeper)
Displacement: 890 tons
Length: 221 ft 3 in (67 m)
Beam: 32 (10 m)
Draft: 10 ft 9 in (3 m)
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement: 100
Armament: 1 X 3 in
2 X 40mm
2 X 20mm
2 depth charge tracks

USS Vital (AM-129) was an Auk-class minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.

Vital was laid down on 1 January 1942 at Chickasaw, Alabama, by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 7 September 1942; sponsored by Miss E. Herrmann; and completed on 18 May 1943.

Contents

[edit] Lend-lease of USS Vital to the U.K.

Turned over to the Royal Navy under provisions of the lend-lease agreement, Vital was renamed HMS Strenuous and subsequently served in the British Navy for the duration of World War II.

[edit] Vital returned to the U.S. Navy

Returned to the United States Government after the war, on 10 December 1946, the ship resumed her former classification, AM-129, but not her former name. She was carried on the Naval Vessel Register as USS Strenuous (AM-129), and in the 1 January 1947 edition of the Naval Vessel Register as merely AM-129.

[edit] Disposition

She was declared surplus on 23 April 1947 and sold by the State Department's Foreign Liquidation Commission to a foreign purchaser. She served in the merchant service until she was broken up for scrap in Germany in July 1956.

[edit] References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Auk-class minesweeper
List of mine warfare vessels of the United States Navy