Reedville (FS-278)

Type:
artificial reef, freighter, purse seiner
Built:
1944, Brooklyn NY USA, as Army FS-278
Specs:
( 166 x 32 ft ) 542 gross tons
Sunk:
Friday, August 14, 2020 - Delaware #11 Artificial Reef
GPS:
38°40.423' -74°44.295'
Depth:
80 ft
Reedville reef
Reedville as Range Recoverer, with enormous radio antennas.

Reedville was built by Wheeler Shipbuilding in 1944 for the US Army as FS-278, one of the countless small freighters needed for the war effort. Coast Guard-manned FS-278 departed New York on 17 December 1944, for the Southwest Pacific where she operated at Peleliu, Palawan, etc. during the war. She was decommissioned shortly after the war's end.

In 1960 the vessel was transferred to the Navy and converted to a missile range instrumentation ship. Rechristened Range Recoverer, she went through a series of classifications: T-AG-161, T-AGM-2, YFRT-524. Range Recoverer supported missile tests for the Navy and NASA on both coasts, finishing her career in Virginia.

By 1974, the Navy had disposed of the vessel, which was then converted to a purse seiner by the Omega Protein Company ( or whatever name it had at the time, ) at which point its history became basically the same as Shearwater. Reedville was named for her home port of Reedville Virginia, Omega's main base of operations on the east coast.

Atlantic Menhaden

In 2013, Omega acquired two new purpose-built vessels to replace the well-worn World War II-era conversions, and eventually donated Shearwater and Reedville as artificial reefs. Omega fishes exclusively for Atlantic Menhaden, or Mossbunker (pictured), which is used in the manufacture of a wide range of products.

Omega Protein Reedville

Omega Protein's facility at Reedville VA, in 2015. Docks at the left, processing plant in the center, grass runway at the right, with spotter planes at upper-right. Leachate ponds at lower-center. There was once a similar facility in Belford NJ, but it is long closed and converted to (what else?) condos.

Reedville reef
Reedville, with Twin Capes behind. Note the dumpster on deck.
Reedville reef
Converted to fishing with a cut-down bow
Reedville reef
An interesting shot showing how the two seine boats are slung from the mother ship with the net between them. The 'boats' are 40 feet long.
The big '22' on the roof is for the spotter planes

Reedville will be a repeat of Shearwater, the vessels are nearly identical.


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natural selection

Here is an abbreviated classification or taxonomy of all the organisms presented in this website, as well as a few others of interest. This is not meant to be a complete listing of all living things, nor even a completely correct one, since these classifications change as new theories come into favor. One should realize that every one of the groupings presented below is a judgment call representing collective scientific opinion, rather than a hard fact.

The classification of living things into groups depends not only on their differences and similarities but also on the degree to which they are studied and understood. For example, lesser-studied types such as mollusks tend to be lumped together into broad classifications, while popular and easily-studied types tend to be divided into fine distinctions. For a prime example of this, pick up any field guide on birds, and see how many Warblers there are in it. Birds are widely considered to be "over-split" - divided into many different species and families that are really not different. Coincidentally, bird-watching is an extremely popular pastime among scientists and laymen alike. Conversely, mollusks are probably "under-split", but then mollusk-watching is no fun at all.

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