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USS Vigilance (AM-324)

Quezon (PS 70).jpg
History
United States
Name: USS Vigilance
Ordered: As HMS Exploit (BAM-24)
Builder: Associated Shipbuilding Corp., Seattle, Washington
Laid down: 28 November 1942
Launched: 5 April 1943
Commissioned: 28 February 1944
Decommissioned: 30 January 1947
Reclassified: MSF-324, 7 February 1955
Struck: 1 December 1966
Honours and
awards:
3 battle stars (World War II)
Fate: Transferred to the Philippines, 19 August 1967
Philippines EnsignPhilippines
Name: BRP Manuel Quezon (PS-70)
Namesake: Manuel L. Quezon
Acquired: 19 August 1967
Fate: Active In-Service
General characteristics
Class and type: Auk-class minesweeper
Displacement: 890 long tons (904 t)
Length: 221 ft 3 in (67.44 m)
Beam: 32 ft (9.8 m)
Draft: 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement: 100 officers and enlisted
Armament:

USS Vigilance (AM-324) was an Auk-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.

Vigilance was originally laid down for the Royal Navy under the lend-lease program as HMS Exploit (BAM-24) on 28 November 1942 at Seattle, Washington, by the Associated Shipbuilding Corp. However, the United States Navy decided to keep the ship and renamed her USS Vigilance (AM-324) on 23 January 1943. Launched on 5 April 1943, the minesweeper was commissioned at her builder's yard on 28 February 1944, Lt. Comdr. William C. Hayes, USNR, in command.

After fitting-out, radio direction finder calibration, sea trials, and minesweeping indoctrination, Vigilance departed Seattle, Washington on 21 March, bound for southern California for type training, shakedown, and training in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) tactics.

Escorting PCS-1396 and PCS-1W, the new minesweeper departed San Diego, California on 4 May, bound for Hawaii. Upon her arrival at Pearl Harbor on 11 May, Vigilance delivered 111 bags of mail to the Fleet Post Office and, three days later, got underway with Triumph (AM-323) for the Marshall Islands. The two minesweepers screened William Ward Burrows (AP-6), Fortune (IX-146), and Boreas (AF-8) to Majuro which they reached on 25 May.


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