From the July 6, 2009, Reading (Pa.) Eagle.
The six piece silver set today sits under a picture of the USS Reading, a frigate that became a Coast Guard ship near the end of World War II.
It was built in the summer of 1943 by the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co. in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and was 303 feet long, 1,284 ton Tacoma-class frigate capable of 20 knots and carrying a crew of 190.
twenty-five companies raised $1,000 a piece for the silver service.
In May 1945, the ship was retrofitted with meteorological devices and it was assigned to the Coast Guard as a weather ship.
Two years later, it was sold to the Navy of Argentina and renamed the Heroina.
Reading wondered what ever had happened to the silver service after 1945 and it was found at an army base and in 1947 returned to Reading. It is the only ship ever to serve in the US Navy by the name Reading. Argentina scrapped it in 1966.
Tea and Crumpets, Anyone? --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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