USNS Grommet Reefer (T-AF-53) was a Grommet Reefer-class

stores ship Combat stores ships, or storeships, are ships used to store naval supplies. They are used to deliver supplies such as provisions and fuel to combat ships on extended deployments. The United States Navy operated the and es and the Royal Navy oper ...

acquired by the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

. Her task was to carry stores, refrigerated items, and equipment to ships in the fleet, and to remote stations and staging areas. ''Grommet Reefer'' was laid down under

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The c ...

contract by

Walter Butler Shipbuilders The McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company was a large-scale wartime ship manufacturing shipyard, located at Riverside (Duluth), the city of Riverside, near Duluth. McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding was at 110 Spring Street, Duluth, Minnesota, now th ...

, Inc., Riverside Yard,

Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

, 1 January 1944: launched as ''Kenneth E. Gruennert'' 29 July 1944: sponsored by Mrs. Walter A. Blodsoe: and delivered to

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime C ...

(WSA) December 1944 for use as a merchant cargo ship. Prior to 1950 she was owned by WSA and the Maritime Commission; and, as ''Kenneth E. Gruennert'' and later as ''Grommet Reefer'', she was operated by several merchant lines, including Grace Lines, Inc.. and Alaska Transportation Company.

Assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service

''Grommet Reefer'' was transferred to the Navy by the Maritime Commission 1 March 1950 and assigned to MSTS. Manned by a civilian crew, she operated in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

out of

U.S. West Coast The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S. states of Cali ...

ports, carrying military cargo and frozen and refrigerated foodstuffs. She steamed to American bases in the

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

, the

Marianas The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly Volcano#Dormant and reactivated, dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean ...

, and other islands in the Western Pacific for more than a year. After returning to

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, 25 March 1951, she departed for the

U.S. East Coast The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always played a m ...

4 April and reached

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

25 April.

Operating in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic

Departing New York 29 June, ''Grommet Reefer'' sailed to the ''Mediterranean'' where she steamed to ports in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

before returning to New York 13 August. After completing a cargo run to

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser. Brem ...

and back, she sailed 22 October for a 2-month deployment to the Mediterranean. From January to April 1952 she made three round-trip voyages to Western Europe, and during the next 2 months she supplied American bases in

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

Running aground and breaking in two

''Grommet Reefer'' resumed Mediterranean duty in September and operated between

and Italy before returning to New York 10 November. After loading cargo, she departed for North Africa 5 days later. On 10 December she departed

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, for

Livorno, Italy Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

. Loaded with Army cargo, she went aground on a

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

during a storm off Leghorn 15 December 1952. She broke in half the next day, and her stern section sank without loss of life. The bow section and cargo were salvaged, and the bow section was recovered and transferred to the Maritime Administration 23 July 1953 for disposition.

Military awards and honors

''Grommet Reefer’s'' crew was eligible for the following medal: *

National Defense Service Medal The National Defense Service Medal (NDSM) is a service award of the United States Armed Forces established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. It was awarded to every member of the U.S. Armed Forces who served during any one of four s ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grommet Reefer (T-AF-53) Type C1-M ships Ships built in Duluth, Minnesota 1944 ships Stores ships of the United States Navy Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Maritime incidents in 1952