.jpg) USSMeasure (AM-263) in 1944 or 1945. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSMeasure (AM-263) |
| Builder | American Ship Building Company,Lorain, Ohio |
| Laid down | 5 June 1943 |
| Launched | 23 October 1943 |
| Sponsored by | Mrs. Richard W. Mills, Jr. |
| Commissioned | 5 May 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 21 May 1945[1] |
| Fate | Transferred toSoviet Navy, 21 May 1945 |
| Reclassified | MSF-263, 7 February 1955 |
| Stricken | 1 January 1983[citation needed] |
| History | |
 Soviet Union | |
| Name | T-275 |
| Acquired | 21 May 1945 |
| Commissioned | 21 May 1945[1] |
| Decommissioned | 23 October 1947 |
| Refit | Converted to civilianwhaling ship |
| Renamed | Buran ("Blizzard"), 1948[citation needed] |
| Honors & awards | Order of the Red Banner, 14 September 1945 |
| Fate | Scrapped 1960[2] |
| 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 |
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| Speed | 14.8 knots (27.4 km/h) |
| Complement | 104 |
| Armament |
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| Service record | |
| Part of: |
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USSMeasure (AM-263) was anAdmirable-classminesweeper built for theUnited States Navy during World War II and in commission from 1944 to 1945. In 1945, she was transferred to theSoviet Union and served in theSoviet Navy from 1945 to 1947 asT-275. She later became the civilianwhaling shipBuran ("Blizzard").
Measure waslaid down atLorain, Ohio, by theAmerican Ship Building Company on 5 June 1943,launched on 23 October 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Richard W. Mills, Jr., andcommissioned on 3 May 1944.
Aftershakedown in theSt. Lawrence River,Measure departedCleveland, Ohio, on 21 May 1944 for a stop atHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, after which she proceeded toBoston, where she arrived on 2 June 1944. On 16 June 1944 she continued on toLittle Creek, Virginia. arriving on 18 June 1944. Assigned toMine Squadron 13, she spent most of the next month inminesweeping exercises in theChesapeake Bay, then reported toService Squadron 5 on 23 July 1944 for towing duty.
On 31 July 1944,Measure began operations as training andschool ship out of Little Creek, continuing in this role into mid-December 1944. On 26 December 1944 she moved toNorfolk, Virginia, and on 3 January 1945 got underway for the United States West Coast viaMiami, and thePanama Canal, arriving atSan Diego, on 28 February 1945. Attached to theWestern Sea Frontier,Measure steamed north on 1 March 1945, made a stopover atSeattle from 5 to 26 March 1945, and arrived atKodiak, Territory of Alaska, on 31 March 1945 for minesweeping duty.
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 –Measure arrived at Cold Bay in the spring of 1945 to begin familiarization training of her new Soviet crew.[2]
Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew,Measure wasdecommissioned on 21 May 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-275 in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound forPetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served in theSoviet Far East.[2]
During theSoviet offensive against Japan in August–September 1945,T-275 saw action against Japanese forces in the Soviet landings atSeising, Korea, on 15 August 1945.
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.[3] The Soviet Union never returnedT-275 to the United States, instead decommissioning her on 23 October 1947, after which she was converted into a civilianwhaling ship and renamedBuran ("Blizzard"). Unaware of her conversion or status, the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated herMSF-263 on 7 February 1955.
Buran was scrapped in 1960.[2] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy keptMeasure on itsNaval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.[citation needed]
The Soviet Union awardedT-275 theOrder of the Red Banner on 14 September 1945 for her World War II service against Japanese forces in August–September 1945.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.Project Hula ships | |||||||||||||
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