Reybold I (DE-177)
1943-1953
John Keane Reybold, born at Delaware City, Del., 11 January 1903, was appointed midshipman on 13 July 1922 and commissioned ensign on 3 June 1926. Having served in various ships including the battleships Idaho (BB-42) and Utah (BB-31), destroyer Simpson (DD-221) (on the Asiatic Station), and light cruiserOmaha (CL-4), he assumed command of Cowell (DD-167), on 17 June 1940. Detached on 23 September, he briefly commanded Claxton (DD-140) and on 31 October assumed command of Dickerson (DD-157).
Commissioned lieutenant commander on 1 January 1941, he commanded Dickerson on Neutrality Patrol and, after December 1941, on coastal patrol and Icelandic convoy escort duty until 19 March 1942.
On that date, Dickerson, about eight miles south of Cape Lookout, while en route to Norfolk, Va., after rescuing 14 of the 40-man crew of the tanker E. M. Clark, sunk by U-124 the previous day, was mistakenly fired upon by the unescorted Lykes Lines freighter Liberator that was en route from Galveston, Texas, to New York.
One of Liberator's 4-inch shells hit the destroyer's charthouse, killing Lt. Cmdr. Reybold, CBM Charles W. McMillen, SM3c George F. Kennedy, and Sea2c Elmer C. Kollar, in addition to seriously wounding QM1c Victor M. Merchant, Jr., RM3c Charles E. Dunning, and RM2c Junius J. Freeman. Later that same afternoon, Liberator was torpedoed and sunk by U-332., taking five of her crew to the bottom.
I
(DE-177: displacement 1,900 (full load); length 306'; beam 36'10"; draft 11'8"; speed 21.0 knots; complement 208; armament 3 3-inch, 2 40 millimeter, 8 20 millimeter, 3 21-inch torpedo tubes, 2 depth charge tracks, 8 depth charge projectors, 1 depth charge projector (Hedgehog); class Cannon)
DE-177 was laid down on 3 May 1943 at Port Newark, N.J., by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; launched as Reybold (DE-177) on 22 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. John K. Reybold, widow of Lt. Cmdr. Reybold; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 29 September 1943, Lt. Cmdr. Addison B. Bradley, Jr., DE-V(G) USNR in command.
Following shakedown off Bermuda, Reybold operated briefly under ComSubLant, then completed an escort run from Rhode Island to the Canal Zone. She then steamed to Norfolk before the end of 1943 and, on 2 January 1944, she sailed south to join the 4th Fleet. On the 15th, she arrived at Recife, Brazil, whence she escorted ships to Trinidad and back until July, interrupting that duty only for air/sea rescue operations at the end of May. In July, she guarded the sealanes between Brazil and Gibraltar, anchoring off the latter 13-15 July and returning to Recife on the 23rd to prepare for transfer to the Brazilian Navy.
Shifting to Natal on 9 August 1944, Reybold was decommissioned and transferred under the terms of Lend-Lease to Brazil on 15 August 1944. Renamed Bracui (Be.4), she continued operations under that name throughout the remainder of World War II and the 1940s. She was returned to the custody of the United States and transferred, permanently, under the terms of the military defense aid program, to Brazil on 30 June 1953. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 20 July 1953.
She served in the Brazilian Navy as Bracui until she was decommissioned on 11 July 1972, after which she was sold and broken up for scrap.
Interim update, Robert J. Cressman
27 March 2023
