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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Grebe (AT 134)
ex-AM-43



Call sign (1939):
Negat - Int - King - Xray

ex-Minesweeper No. 43



Call sign (1919):
George - Boy - Cast - Vice

Grounded and lost 6 December 1942
Lapwing Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 25 May 1918 by the Staten Island Steam Boat Co., Staten Island, NY
  • Launched 17 December 1918
  • Commissioned USS Grebe, Minesweeper No. 43, 1 May 1919 at Brooklyn Navy Yard
  • Designated AM-43, 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned 12 May 1922
  • Recommissioned 15 November 1922
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Tug, AT-134, 1 June 1942
  • Lost due to grounding 6 December 1942 at Vuanta Vatoa, Fiji and hurricane damage 1 - 2 January 1943
  • Struck from the Navy Register 28 July 1943.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 950 t.
  • Length 187' 10"
  • Beam 35' 6"
  • Draft 8' 10"
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 78
  • Armament: Two 3" mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, one triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Grebe Minesweeper No. 43
    Grebe 62k . Jon Burdett
    Grebe 112k 10 June 1919
    Test of Marine Railway, Grebe, forward of USS Acushnet (AT-63). View to southwest at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The Marine Railway is located between Piers 2 and 3, on the Charlestown waterfront at west end of Navy Yard, Boston, Suffolk County, MA
    Library of Congress photo HAER MA-90-69-18    		 Mike Green
    USS Grebe (AM 43)
    Grebe 112k c. 1920
    New York harbor
    Photo by P. L. Speer    		 Darryl Baker
    Grebe 17k c. 1921/22
    Panama Canal    		 Dave Spence
    Grebe Crew 83k c. 1938/1940
    Crew photo. Signalman August Billig is 10th from the left, back row    		 Bruce Billig
    USS Grebe (AT 134)
    Grebe 147k U.S. Navy photo from "Our Fighting Ships" by Mitchell D. Katz, Jr., Herbert C. Lee and Edwil L. Levy, Jr., Harper and Brothers, 1942 Derick S. Hartshorn
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Niels Dustrup, USN - Awarded the Medal of Honor (1914)1 May 1919
    02Chief Boatswain Albert C. Franzel, USN15 November 1922
    03LT Chester Claude Farmer, USN19 August 1925
    ??LT Harry Saint John Butler, USN1934
    ??LT Herbert Augustus Anderson, USN1936
    ??LCDR Ellsworth Dudley McEathron, USN - USNA Class of 1922
    Awarded the Silver Star (1945) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		1938
    ??LT Marion Clermont Thompson, USN1939
    ??LT H. S. Bogan, USN.
    ??ENS W. L. Sloan, USN.
    ??LT C. M. Lewis, USN.
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Grebe (AM-43)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Minesweeper (AM) Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Ship Photo Index Back to the Fleet Tug (AT) Photo Index
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