USS Augury (AM-149)

USS Augury (AM-149) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II and in commission from 1943 to 1945. In 1945, she was transferred to the Soviet Navy, in which she served as T-334.

Construction and commissioning

Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper," AMc-126, Augury was reclassified as a "minesweeper," AM-149, on 21 February 1942. She was laid down on 7 December 1942 at Tampa, Florida, by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Inc., launched on 23 February 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Helen K. MacLean, and commissioned on 17 March 1944 with Lieutenant A. G. Wood, USNR, in command.

Service history

U.S. Navy, World War II, 1943-1945

After fitting out, Augury completed shakedown training out of Little Creek, Virginia, between 8 April and 8 May 1943. On 10 May 1943, she got underway as part of the escort for a convoy bound for the United States West Coast. She and her charges arrived in the Panama Canal Zone on 19 May 1943, transited the Panama Canal soon thereafter, and continued on up the western coast of North America. Augury entered port at San Francisco, California, on 2 June 1943 and remained there until 22 June 1943, when she resumed her journey, shaping a course for the Territory of Alaska. She arrived at Kodiak, Alaska, on 29 June 1943 and reported for duty with Task Force (TF) 91. For the remainder of her U.S. Navy career, she plied the waters surrounding Kodiak Island and the Aleutian Islands, escorting ships between such ports as Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Adak, Amchitka, Attu, Shemya, and Chernofski and conducted minesweeping operations in the bays, inlets, and passes along the Aleutian archipelago.

Selected for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan – Augury began four weeks of familiarization training for her new Soviet crew at Cold Bay on 23 June 1945.[1]

Soviet Navy, 1945-1960

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, Admirable was decommissioned on 19 July 1945[2] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately.[2] Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,[2] she was designated as a tralshik ("minesweeper") and renamed T-334[3] in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served in the Soviet Far East.[1]

In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II, and on 8 May 1947, United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal informed the United States Department of State that the United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned. Deteriorating relations between the two countries as the Cold War broke out led to protracted negotiations over the ships, and by the mid-1950s the U.S. Navy found it too expensive to bring home ships that had become worthless to it anyway. Many ex-American ships were merely administratively "returned" to the United States and instead sold for scrap in the Soviet Union, while the U.S. Navy did not seriously pursue the return of others because it viewed them as no longer worth the cost of recovery.[4] The Soviet Union never returned Augury to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated her MSF-149 on 7 February 1955.

Disposal

T-334 was scrapped in the Soviet Union in 1960.[5] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy kept Augury on its Naval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.

References

  1. 1 2 Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39.
  2. 1 2 3
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 37-38, 39.
  5. ↑

External links

History
United States
Name: USS Augury (AMc-126)
Builder: Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Tampa, Florida
Reclassified: AM-149, 21 February 1942
Laid down: 7 December 1942
Launched: 23 February 1943
Sponsored by: Mrs. Helen K. MacLean
Commissioned: 17 March 1944
Decommissioned: 19 July 1945[1]
Fate: Transferred to the Soviet Union, 19 July 1945[1]
Reclassified: MSF-149, 7 February 1955
Struck: 1 January 1983
History
Soviet Union
Name: T-334[2]
Acquired: 19 July 1945[1]
Commissioned: 19 July 1945[1]
Fate: Scrapped 1960[3]
General characteristics
Class & type: Admirable-class minesweeper
Displacement: 650 tons
Length: 184 ft 6 in (56.24 m)
Beam: 33 ft (10 m)
Draft: 9 ft 9 in (2.97 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 14.8 knots (27.4 km/h)
Complement: 104
Armament:
Service record
Part of:
  1. 1 2 3 4 The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Augury article states that the U.S. Navy decommissioned and transferred Augury on 18 July 1945, and NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Augury (MSF 149) ex-AM-149 ex-AMc-126 and hazegray.org Augury repeat this. However, more recent research in Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, reports that the transfer date was 19 July 1945. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994. According to Russell, Project Hula ships were decommissioned by the U.S. Navy simultaneously with their transfer to and commissioning by the Soviet Navy – see photo captions on p. 24 regarding the transfers of various large infantry landing craft (LCI(L)s) and information on p. 27 about the transfer of USS Coronado (PF-38), which Russell says typified the transfer process – indicating that Admirable's U.S. Navy decommissioning, transfer, and Soviet Navy commissioning all occurred simultaneously on 19 July 1945.
  2. ↑ The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Augury article states that Augury was named T-524 in Soviet service, and hazegray.org Augury repeats this, but more recent research in Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 39-40, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, finds that the ship's Soviet name was T-334, while an auxiliary motor minesweeper, the former USS YMS-145, also transferred in 1945, had the Soviet name T-524. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994. NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Augury (MSF 149) ex-AM-149 ex-AMc-126 also identifies Augury's Soviet name as T-334.
  3. ↑ NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Augury (MSF 149) ex-AM-149 ex-AMc-126 states that the ship was scrapped in 1954, while Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39, reports that the ship's Soviet name was T-334 and states that T-334 was stricken in 1958. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994. Russell, p. 40., also states that T-524 – a Soviet name previously attributed to Augury but now identified as belonging to the former USS YMS-145, was destroyed by mutual agreement between the two countries in 1956, ruling out this misidentification as a reason for confusion over the ship's fate, and it is unclear why NavSource asserts a 1954 scrapping date.
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