USS Grand Rapids (PG-98)

History
United States
Name:	USS Grand Rapids (PG-98)
Builder:	Tacoma Boatbuilding Company
Launched:	4 April 1970
Commissioned:	5 September 1970
Decommissioned:	1 October 1977
Fate:	Transferred to Naval Sea Systems Command as R/V Athena II
Status:	unknown
General characteristics
Class & type:	Asheville-class gunboat
Displacement:	245 tons
Length:	164 ft 6 in
Beam:	23 ft 11 in
Draft:	5 ft 4 in
Speed:	40 kts
Complement:	24
Armament:	one 3 inch, one 40mm gun mount, two twin .50 cal. machine guns

The second USS Grand Rapids (PGM-98/PG-98) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.

On 13 June 1968, the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, Tacoma, Washington laid down Grand Rapids, the eleventh Asheville-class gunboat built by Tacoma. In August 1968, however, the Tacoma shipyard suffered a severe fire that destroyed the under construction Grand Rapids (together with sister ship Benicia). A new Grand Rapids, with the same hull number, was laid down again by Tacoma Boat 20 May 1969, launched on 20 December 1969 and commissioned on 5 September 1970.^[1][2]

Grand Rapids was homeported in San Diego and later Naples, Italy,^[3]

Grand Rapids was decommissioned on 1 October 1977 and transferred to the Naval Sea Systems Command where she was renamed Research Vessel Athena II.^[4]

References

1. Friedman 1987, p. 464.
2. "World's Naval News". Warship International. Vol. VII no. 1. 31 March 1970. p. 17.
3. "PG-98 Grand Rapids". Gunboat Riders. Retrieved 2009-06-27.
4. "Gunboat PG-98 Grand Rapids". NavSource Online. Retrieved 2009-06-27.

• Friedman, Norman (1987). U.S. Small Combatants Including PT-Boats, Subchasers and the Brown-Water Navy: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-713-5.

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.