USS Fearless (MSO-442)

	Fearless in 1956
History
United States
Name	USS Fearless
Builder	Higgins Industries, New Orleans, Louisiana
Laid down	23 July 1952
Launched	17 July 1953
Commissioned	22 September 1954, as AM-442
Decommissioned	23 October 1990
Reclassified	MSO-442 (Ocean Minesweeper), 7 February 1955
Stricken	28 October 1990
Fate	Sold for scrap, 1 December 1992
General characteristics
Class and type	Aggressive-class minesweeper
Displacement	853 long tons (867 t) full load
Length	172 ft (52 m)
Beam	35 ft (11 m)
Draft	10 ft (3 m)
Propulsion	4 × aluminum block Waukesha diesel engines, 2,400 bhp (1,790 kW); 2 × shafts; 2 × controllable pitch propellers;
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	Active: 7 officers, 70 enlisted; Naval Reserve Force: 5 officers, 52 enlisted plus 25 reserve;
Sensors and ; processing systems	AN/SQQ-14 mine countermeasures sonar
Armament	1 × twin 20 mm gun mount; 2 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) twin machine guns;

USS Fearless (AM/MSO-442) was an Aggressive-class minesweeper. She was the third United States Navy ship to carry the name.

Fearless was launched on 17 July 1953 by Higgins, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana; sponsored by Mrs. A. J. Higgins, Jr.; and commissioned on 22 September 1954. Authorized as AM-442; she was reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-442, 7 February 1955.

Service history

With Charleston, South Carolina as her home port, Fearless operated through 1960 on training operations, experiments and tests, and in exercises along the coast and in the Caribbean. Every other year from 1955 she sailed to the Mediterranean for duty with the 6th Fleet, joining in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation exercises and visiting European ports. In the spring of 1956, she conducted joint exercises with ships of the Royal Canadian Navy, and through that summer experimented with controllable pitch propellers and mine-countermeasures equipment at Charleston and Port Everglades, Florida.

In August 1987 Fearless was towed by Grapple (ARS-53) to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Earnest Will, arriving in mid-September. Full scale mine countermeasures operations began in November of that year. Fearless remained in theatre at least into 1988, clearing mines in the Persian Gulf. Her eligible crew earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for her service.

Fearless operated out of Charleston, South Carolina during her entire career. She decommissioned on 23 October 1990, and was struck five days later. She was sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service for scrapping, 1 December 1992 to Seawitch Salvage, Baltimore, Maryland for $6,000.

Fearless received four Navy "E" Ribbons, one Meritorious Unit Commendation, one Navy Unit Commendation and two Secretary of the Navy Letter of Commendations during her career.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

External links

Photo gallery of USS Fearless (AM-442 at NavSource Naval History
Ships class average report