Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper,"AMc-125,Astute reclassified as a minesweeper,AM-148, on 21 February 1942. She waslaid down on 7 December 1942 atTampa,Florida, by theTampa Shipbuilding Company,launched on 23 February 1943, sponsored by Mrs. M. L. Haney, andcommissioned on 17 January 1944.
Selected for transfer to theSoviet Navy inProject Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy atCold Bay, Alaska, in anticipation of theSoviet Union joining thewar against Japan –Astute proceeded Cold Bay in the summer of 1945 and began training her new Soviet crew.[4]
Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew,Astute wasdecommissioned on 19 July 1945[1] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union underLend-Lease immediately.[1] Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,[1] she was designated as atralshik ("minesweeper") and renamedT-333[2] in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound forPetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served in theSoviet 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,United States Secretary of the NavyJames V. Forrestal informed theUnited States Department of State that theUnited 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 theCold 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 returnedAstute to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated herMSF-148 on 7 February 1955.
T-333 was scrapped in the Soviet Union in 1960.[3] Unaware of this, the U.S. Navy retainedAstute on itsNaval Vessel Register until finally striking her name on 1 January 1983.
^abcdefTheDictionary of American Naval Fighting ShipsAstute article states that the U.S. Navy decommissionedAstute on 18 July 1945, andNavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Astute (MSF 148) ex-AM-148 ex-AMc-125 andhazegray.orgAstute repeat this. However, Russell, Richard A.,Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.:Naval Historical Center, 1997,ISBN0-945274-35-1, p. 39, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during theCold 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 variouslarge infantry landing craft (LCI(L)s) and information on p. 27 about the transfer ofUSS Coronado (PF-38), which Russell says typified the transfer process – indicating thatAstute's U.S. Navy decommissioning, transfer, and Soviet Navy commissioning all occurred simultaneously on 19 July 1945.
^abTheDictionary of American Naval Fighting ShipsAstute article states thatAstute was namedT-523 in Soviet service, andNavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Astute (MSF 148) ex-AM-148 ex-AMc-125 andhazegray.orgAstute repeat 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,ISBN0-945274-35-1, pp. 39–40, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during theCold War, finds that the ship's Soviet name wasT-333, while anauxiliary motor minesweeper, the formerUSS YMS-144, also transferred in 1945, had the Soviet nameT-523. 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.
^abNavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive Admirable (MSF 136) ex-AM-136 ex-AMc-113 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,ISBN0-945274-35-1, p. 39, reports that the ship's Soviet name wasT-333 and states thatT-333 was scrapped in 1960. 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 thatT-523 – a Soviet name previously attributed toAstutee but now identified as belonging to the formerUSS YMS-144 – was scrapped in 1946, 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.
^abRussell, Richard A.,Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.:Naval Historical Center, 1997,ISBN0-945274-35-1, p. 39.
^Russell, Richard A.,Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.:Naval Historical Center, 1997,ISBN0-945274-35-1, pp. 37–38, 39.
United States
Soviet Union
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
United States Navy
Soviet Navy
