| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSCaptivate (AMc-133) |
| Builder | Willamette Iron and Steel Works,Portland,Oregon |
| Reclassified | AM-156, 21 February 1942 |
| Laid down | 12 May 1942 |
| Launched | 1 December 1942 |
| Commissioned | 30 December 1943 |
| Decommissioned | 17 August 1945[1] |
| Fate | Transferred toSoviet Navy, 17 August 1945[1] |
| Reclassified | MSF-156, 7 February 1955 |
| Stricken | 1 January 1983 |
| History | |
 Soviet Union | |
| Name | T-338[2] |
| Acquired | 17 August 1945[1] |
| Commissioned | 17 August 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 |
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| Service record | |
| Part of: |
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USSCaptivate (AM-156) was anAdmirable-classminesweeper built for theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II and in commission from 1943 to 1945. In 1945, she was transferred to theSoviet Union and then served in theSoviet Navy asT-338.
Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper,"AMc-133,Captivate was reclassified as a "minesweeper,"AM-156, on 21 February 1942. She waslaunched on 1 December 1942 atPortland,Oregon, byWillamette Iron and Steel Works andcommissioned on 30 December 1943.
Reporting to theUnited States Pacific Fleet for assignment,Captivate stood out ofSan Francisco,California, on 11 March 1944 bound forPearl Harbor,Territory of Hawaii, andMajuro in theMarshall Islands. Arriving at Majuro on 10 April 1944, she operated as harbor entrance patrol andpilot vessel, occasionally escortingconvoys to the other islands of the Marshalls group. Leaving Majuro on 22 September 1944, she moved to theMariana Islands, where she escorted convoys and patrolled offTinian until 14 October 1944. Arriving in the newly capturedPalau Islands on 23 October 1944,Captivate performed patrol and escort duties there until 3 February 1945, when she moved toEniwetok to perform similar duties through the remainder of February 1945.
Arriving at Portland, Oregon, on 27 March 1945,Captivate moved toSeattle,Washington, where she aided in training programs until 6 July 1945. 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,Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of theSoviet Union joining thewar against Japan –Captivate proceeded to Cold Bay to begin familiarization training of her new Soviet crew.[4]
Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew,Captivate wasdecommissioned on 17 August 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-338[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 returnedCaptivate to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated herMSF-156 on 7 February 1955.
T-338 was scrapped in 1960.[3] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy keptCaptivate on itsNaval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.Project Hula ships | |||||||||||||
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