Minesweeping Boats Arrive in Persian Gulf

The first U.S. Navy minesweeping boats have arrived in the Persian Gulf and are expected to soon begin helping sweep mines for convoys of U.S.-escorted oil tankers, Administration sources said today.

The sources said the two small minesweeping boats are aboard the St. Louis, a troop landing craft that has arrived in the gulf. It is also carrying two small patrol boats.

Until now, the U.S. warships have had to rely on eight minesweeping helicopters from the amphibious assault ship Guadalcanal to help clear a path for the Kuwaiti tankers, which have been recommissioned to carry the American flag. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the St. Louis is now in the gulf but declined to comment on its cargo.

The sources also said another ship carrying four more of the minesweeping boats, the Raleigh, is in the Arabian Sea on its way to the gulf. It is also carrying four more patrol boats, they said. The Raleigh is an equipment-landing craft.

6 Ships Ordered to Gulf

The Navy last week also ordered six ocean-going minesweeping ships to the Persian Gulf. The sources said three left their Seattle, Wash., home port last Friday. The trip is expected to take nearly a month.

The three other aging World War II minesweepers have not left their home port of Norfolk, Va., the sources said. The ships have wooden hulls to avoid setting off magnetic mines.

Sandstorms swept the Persian Gulf for a fourth day today, reducing visibility and making it impossible to determine whether a reported convoy of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers and U.S. Navy ships was moving toward the emirate.

Various reports have said a convoy was off the coast of Saudi Arabia or had completed the trip. Sources at the emirate’s state-run Kuwait Oil Tanker Co. denied the reports.