USS Capable (AM-155)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Capable.

USS Capable (AM-155) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. In 1945, she was transferred to the Soviet Union and then served in the Soviet Navy as T-339.

Capable off Seattle, Washington as she heads for Cold Bay, Alaska in July 1945
History
United States
Name	USS Capable (AMc-132)
Builder	Willamette Iron and Steel Works, Portland, Oregon
Reclassified	AM-155, 21 February 1942
Laid down	12 May 1942
Launched	16 October 1942
Commissioned	5 December 1943
Decommissioned	17 August 1945[1]
Fate	Transferred to Soviet Navy, 17 August 1945[1]
Reclassified	MSF-155, 7 February 1955
Stricken	1 January 1983
History
Soviet Union
Name	T-339[2]
Acquired	17 August 1945[1]
Commissioned	17 August 1945[1]
Fate	Scrapped 1960[3]
General characteristics
Class and 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	2 × ALCO 539 diesel engines, 1,710 shp (1.3 MW) Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear 2 shafts
Speed	14.8 knots (27.4 km/h)
Complement	104
Armament	1 × 3"/50 caliber gun DP 2 × twin Bofors 40 mm guns 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 2 × depth charge tracks
Service record
Part of:	U.S. Pacific Fleet (1943–1945) Soviet Pacific Ocean Fleet (1945–1960)

Construction and commissioning

Originally classified as a "coastal minesweeper," AMc-132, Capable was reclassified as a "minesweeper," AM-155, on 21 February 1942. She was launched on 16 November 1942 at Portland, Oregon, by Willamette Iron and Steel Works and commissioned on 5 December 1943.

Service history

U.S. Navy, World War II, 1943-1945

After reporting to the Pacific Fleet for assignment, Capable cleared San Francisco, California, on 8 February 1944 bound for Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, and Majuro in the Marshall Islands. Arriving at Majuro on 9 March 1944, she was based there until October 1944, serving as a convoy escort, voyaging to Pearl Harbor, Kwajalein, Tarawa, Eniwetok, Manus, and Makin as the United States built up its fleet bases in the Pacific to support offensive operations against the Japanese. Moving on to the more advanced base at Eniwetok, she served on local patrol and escort in the Mariana Islands, and in February 1945 escorted a convoy to Ulithi as part of the preparations for the invasion of Iwo Jima.

Selected for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan – Capable arrived at Seattle, Washington on 6 April 1945 for pre-transfer overhaul. With her overhaul complete, she arrived at Cold Bay on 11 July 1945 to begin familiarization training of her new Soviet crew.^[4]

Soviet Navy, 1945-1960

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, Capable was decommissioned on 17 August 1945^[1] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately.^[1] Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,^[1] she was designated as a tralshik ("minesweeper") and renamed T-339^[2] in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served in the Soviet 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 Navy James V. Forrestal informed the United States Department of State that the United 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 the Cold 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 returned Capable to the United States, although the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated her MSF-155 on 7 February 1955.

Disposal

T-339 was scrapped in 1960.^[3] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy kept Capable on its Naval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.