USS Indicative (AM-250)

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Career (United States)
Name: USS Indicative (AM-250)
Builder: Savannah Machine and Foundry Company
Laid down: 29 September 1943
Launched: 12 December 1943
Sponsored by: Mrs. E. L. Smith
Commissioned: 26 June 1944
Decommissioned: 5 April 1945
Fate: Transferred to Soviet Union, 5 April 1945
Career (Soviet Union)
Name: T-278
Acquired: 5 April 1945
Refit: converted to naval trawler, 1948
Renamed: Tsiklon, 1948
Struck: 1964
Fate: unknown
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: US Atlantic Fleet (1944-1945)

USS Indicative (AM-250) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. In 1945, she was transferred to the Soviet Navy under Lend-Lease as T-278. The Soviets converted her into a naval trawler in 1948 and renamed her Tsiklon. She was stricken in 1964, never having been returned to U.S. custody. Because of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy was unaware of this fate and the vessel remained on the American Naval Vessel Register until she was struck on 1 January 1983.

Career

Indicative was laid down 29 September 1943 by Savannah Machine & Foundry Co., Savannah, Georgia; launched 12 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs. E. L. Smith; and commissioned 26 June 1944, Lt. E. A. Comee in command.

Following shakedown and a training period at Little Creek, Virginia, Indicative sailed 19 August 1944 for antisubmarine exercises off Bermuda. She then took up regular duties as a convoy escort vessel between U.S. ports and Bermuda, helping to counter the threat of German submarines in the western Atlantic.

The minesweeper departed New York 5 February 1945 and steamed by way of the Panama Canal Zone and the U.S. West Coast ports to Cold Bay, Alaska, arriving 4 April 1945. With other minecraft, she was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease the next day as T-278.

The Soviets converted T-278 into a naval trawler in 1948 and renamed her Tsiklon. She was stricken in 1964, never having been return to U.S. Navy custody. Her ultimate fate is unreported in secondary sources.

Unaware of the ship's fate, the U.S. Navy reclassified her as MSF-250 on 7 February 1955, and she remained on the American Naval Vessel Register until her name was stricken on 1 January 1983.

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.