(AM‑265: dp. 625; l. 184'6"; b. 33'; dr. 9'9"; s. 15 k.; cpl. 104; a. 1 3", 4 40mm.; cl. Admirable)
Gaiety or merriment.
Mirth (AM‑265) was laid down 31 July 1943 by American Shipbuilding Co., Lorain, Ohio; launched 24 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. B. E. Gathercoal; and commissioned 12 August 1944, Lt. M. A. Rusteen, USNR, in command.
After shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Mirth, a unit of MinDiv 37, got underway for brief duty with the Naval Operating Base, Bermuda, 29 November 1944. During December she operated from St. George's Bay, sweeping the channels, conducting antisubmarine patrols, thus ensuring safe passage into the western terminus of the southern convoy routes, and escorting single vessels to midocean join‑ups with convoys en route. She returned to Virginia at the end of the month and continued on to New York 3 January 1945. She remained in the New York area throughout January, departed 5 February for the Panama Canal and further routing to Cold Bay, Alaska. Arriving at the northern port 3 April, Mirth conducted coastal exercises and trained sailors of the Soviet Navy until 21 May. She then decommissioned and was transferred, under the terms of the Lend‑Lease Agreement, to the custody of the U.S.S.R. On 7 February 1955, she was redesignated as MSF‑265. As of 1969, she had neither been returned nor purchased by the U.S.S.R.
