Rinehart DE-196

Rinehart

(DE-196: dp. 1,620 (f.) ,1. 306'0", b. 36'7", dr. 11'8", s. 21 k. epl. 216; a. 3 3", 6 40mm., 10 20mm., 2 dct., 8 dcp., 1 dcp. (h.h ); cl. Levy)

Rinehart (DE-196) was laid down hy the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newark, N.J., 21 October 1943

Launched 9 January 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy Ruth Rinehart; and commissioned at New York 12 February 1944, Lt. Partee W. Croueh in command.

Following shakedown off Bermuda and brief service as a schoolship out of Norfolk, Rinehart commenced her primary work as a convoy escort when she sailed to New York 8 May 1944 to piek up the New York section of a North Africabound convoy. Arriving Bizerte, Tunisia, 1 June, she steamed for New York 9 days later with a return convoy She made a second voyage from Norfolk to Bizerte and back to New York 24 July to 7 September.

Rine)u~rt cleared New York on 14 October 1944 for the first of five convoy escort voyages to ports in Great Britain and France. She sailed from New York to Liverpool, England, and back (14 October to 9 November 1944); from 13oston to Plymouth, England, to New York (2 to 31 December 1944); from New York to Liverpool and back (18 January to 14 February 1945); from Boston to Le Havre, France, and Southampton, England, and back to New York (8 March to 4 April 1945); and from Boston to Gourock, Scotland, and back to New York (24 April to 19 May 1945). During this last voyage, she rescued a man overboard from merchant tanker Sea Don on 1 May.

After an overhaul, Rinehart cleared New York with the rest of Eseort Division 55 for refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Contimfing on to the Pacific, she transited the Panama Canal 1 July, and, after a stop at San Diego, arrived at Pearl Harbor 21 July.

Following training in Hawaiian waters, Rinehart sailed from Pearl Harbor 8 August 1945 as escort for an Eniwetok-bound convoy. She delivered her charges safely at that port 16 August and was assigned to patrol on the barrier line between the convoy lanes. She also served as ready duty ship and on 12 September recovered LCVP-38~32 which was adrift off the island.

On 26 September 1945, Rinehart headed for Wake Island where she assumed radio and station ship duty upon her arrival the following day. She was relieved of this duty 4 October and sailed back to Eniwetok by way of Bikini where she replenished three YMS's stationed there. The escort revisited Bikini during 19-21 October for a similar mission, then returned to Wake Island on 24 October 1945 to serve as port director and radio ship. During heavy weather on the 28th and 29th, Rinehart barely avoided joining SS Pierre Victory on a coral reef. Her mooring buoys were ripped loose but skillful manuvering enabled her to stay clear and aid the merchant ship get off the reef and into safe water to ride out the storm.

Rinehart put to sea from Wake Island 1 December 1945 and embarked Navy passengers at Eniwetok Atoll for transportation to Pearl Harbor where she arrived 15 December 1945. After acting as weather .station ship off Pearl Harbor, she got underway from that port on 2 February for the east coast of the United States. Steaming in company with Thornhill, she touched at San Pedro, Calif., transited the Panama Canal on 1 March, and arrived in the Boston Navy Yard on 7 March 1946. She cleared Boston Harbor with Thornhill on 13 April and reported for inactivation at Green Cove Springs, Fla., on 16 April 1946. She remained in inactive status until 17 July 1946 when she decommissioned and was assigned to the Florida Group of the U.S. Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Rinehart was transferred to the Netherlands under terms of the Military Assistanee Program on 1 June 1950. She was struck from the Navy list 26 September 1950. She serves in the Royal Netherlands Navy into 1970 as De Bitter.