USS Candid

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USS Candid off San Francisco, 1 February 1944
History
United States
NameUSS Candid (AMc-131)
BuilderWillamette Iron and Steel Works
ReclassifiedAM-154, 21 February 1942
Laid down27 April 1942
Launched14 October 1942
Commissioned31 October 1943
Decommissioned17 August 1945[1]
FateTransferred to Soviet Navy 17 August 1945
ReclassifiedMSF-154, 7 February 1955
Stricken1 January 1983
History
Soviet Union
NameT-283[3]
Acquired17 August 1945
Commissioned17 August 1945[1]
FateStricken 1958[2]
General characteristics
Class and typeAdmirable-class minesweeper
Displacement650 tons
Length184 ft 6 in (56.24 m)
Beam33 ft (10 m)
Draft9 ft 9 in (2.97 m)
Propulsion
Speed14.8 knots (27.4 km/h)
Complement104
Armament
  • 1 ×
    3"/50 caliber gun
    DP
  • 2 × twin
    Bofors 40 mm guns
  • 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar
  • 2 × depth charge tracks
Service record
Part of:

USS Candid (AM-154) 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 Union and served after that in the Soviet Navy as T-283.

Construction and commissioning

Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper," AMc-131, Candid was reclassified as a "minesweeper," AM-154, on 21 February 1942. She was

launched on 14 October 1942 at Portland, Oregon, by Willamette Iron and Steel Works and commissioned
on 31 October 1943.

Service history

Candid departed

sweep for mines, she sailed through stormy waters to fog-bound ports in the Aleutian Islands, supporting United States Army units on the isolated islands and backing up U.S. Navy attacks on the Kuril Islands of northern Japan. She returned to San Francisco on 18 August 1944, and two weeks later got underway for the Marshall Islands for operations there and in the Mariana Islands
, providing local escort services in support of the consolidation of these islands and their development as bases for naval and air strikes against the Japanese.

On 16 April 1945, Candid got underway for

Washington and an overhaul. 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 – she departed Seattle in the summer of 1945 after the completion of her overhaul and proceeded to Cold Bay to begin familiarization training for her new Soviet crew.[4]

Soviet Navy, 1945-1958

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, Candid was

Soviet Far East.[4]

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,

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.[5]
The Soviet Union never returned Candid to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated her MSF-154 on 7 February 1955.

Disposal

The Soviet Navy struck T-283 from its vessel register in 1958.[2] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy kept Candid on its Naval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.

References

  1. ^
    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 – which in Candid's case was 17 August 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. Apparently, Candid's U.S. Navy decommissioning, transfer, and Soviet Navy commissioning all occurred simultaneously in a single ceremony on 17 August 1945.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39, reports that the ship's Soviet name was T-283 and states that T-283 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-594 – a Soviet name previously attributed to Candid but now identified as belonging to the former USS YMS-139
    – was scrapped in 1955, probably explaining some of the confusion over the fate of T-283, although this does not explain the assertion that T-594 was probably scrapped in the following year.
  3. ^
    auxiliary motor minesweeper, the former USS YMS-139
    , also transferred in 1945, had the Soviet name T-594. 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.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-945274-35-1
    , p. 39.
  5. ISBN 0-945274-35-1
    , pp. 37-38, 39.


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