RANGE RECOVERER T-AGM 2

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Missile Range Instrumentation Ship Built for the US Army in 1944 by Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp., Whitestone, N.Y Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-278 (U.S. Army) Commissioned 25 November 1944 - Decommissioned 3 October 1945 Acquired by the Navy April 1960 & Converted USNS RANGE RECOVERER T-AG-161 Assigned to MSTS and placed in service 22 June 1960 USNS RANGE RECOVERER T-AGM-2 Reclassified Missile Range Instrumentation Ship (T-AGM-2) 27 November 1960 Placed out of service 1972 RANGE RECOVERER YFRT-524 Reclassified Range Tender YFRT-524 in May 1972 Struck from the Naval Register, date unknown REEDVILLE (Commercial Service) Purchased from the U.S. Government on November 1 1974 by Zapata Haynie Corp Company later renamed to Zapata Protein then Omega Protein in the 1990s Converted into a fishing boat for catching menhaden along the U.S. Atlantic coast Christened on October 25, 1975 and home ported at Reedville, VA Official Number: 569161 First appears in Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1977-78 edition Prior naming history first appears in Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1980-81 edition as: "ex Range Recoverer (T-AGM 2) ex T-AG 161 ex FS 278" Retired after the 2016 fishing season and donated in 2017 to become an artificial reef Sunk on August 13 2020 to become part of Delaware's artificial reef habitat 16 miles off the Delaware coast. YouTube video

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USNS Range Recoverer T-AGM-2 Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 2(n+) USS Austin LPD 4

1967-12-18

N/A

Cachet by Tazewell G. Nicholson.

 

Other Information

NAMESAKE - A ship stationed in the anticipated landing area of a space vehicle.

 

Additional Naming History Sources

A more detailed history can be found at Shipscribe.com.

Montgomery Deihl, Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Harvesters, was most generous in providing the following information and assenting to its inclusion in the NCM. Thank you, Montgomery!
(Note: Ocean Harvesters purchased all fishing vessels from Omega Protein in 2017 and is identified as their "fishing partner".)

The following is an excerpt from a personal communication to the NCM by Mr Deihl on August 26, 2024:
"The vessel 'Reedville' was purchased by Zapata Haynie Corp in 1974 from the US Government, converted to a menhaden fishing vessel here at our docks in Reedville, VA, and was christened into service in Oct 1975. We retired her after the 2016 fishing season and she was donated as a reef in 2017.
For over 40 years she was the 'flagship' of our fishing operations and for some years participated in Harborfest in Norfolk, VA, where we gave tours and handed out the attached brochure...(see below).
My uncle, Harold Deihl, was the first Captain on her as a menhaden vessel....She had a very long and storied career, serving during WWII in the south pacific and, for a while, ferried some of Gen Douglas MacArthur's staff around."

Brochure identified in the passage above:

Photo (date unknown) of the 'Reedville' when she was loaded with menhaden (approximately 1.1 million) coming into port in Reedville.

 

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