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SS Gem State (T-ACS 2)

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Built and delivered as breakbulk ship PRESIDENT MONROE for American Presidents Line, the ship was later transfered to the Maritime Administration. In the mid-80s, the ship was converted to a crane ship at Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City, Mich., and placed in service as GEM STATE (T-ACS 2). Today, the ship is part of the Ready Reserve Force and is berthed at Alameda, Calif., capable of being fully activated within 5 days.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard SS GEM STATE. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

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SS GEM STATE History:

SS GEM STATE began life as the breakbulk/container ship PRESIDENT MONROE for American President Lines, built by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego and delivered to service on April 25, 1966. As containerization gathered pace, she was converted in 1972 at Todd Shipyard, Seattle, to a full container configuration (type C6-S-1qc). On April 30, 1980, APL traded PRESIDENT MONROE to the U.S. Maritime Administration. She entered layup in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet and, on May 1, 1985, received her new name GEM STATE. In 1986, the ship was converted under the Maritime Administration's auxiliary crane ship program to the C6-S-MA1qd configuration with three twin-boom pedestal cranes, creating a self-sustaining cargo platform intended to operate where port infrastructure was limited or damaged.

The ship's first major activation in federal service came with the endgame of the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Military Sealift Command activated GEM STATE on October 2, 1991, for sealift support in the wake of Operation Desert Storm and then for Operation Desert Sortie, the large retrograde that moved equipment, supplies, and ammunition out of the Middle East once combat operations ceased. The activation ran 136 days. On February 14, 1992, GEM STATE returned to Maritime Administration custody and to reduced operating status. Through the 1990s, she remained in the Ready Reserve Force on the U.S. West Coast, maintained for rapid activation and used periodically for cargo-handling drills that refined joint "logistics over the shore" techniques as doctrine matured after the war.

By the 2000s and 2010s, her biography shows the steady cadence typical of RRF crane ships: preservation at the Alameda, California outport, punctuated by short activations and exercise support. Photographs document the ship moored with sister units at Alameda on March 28, 2010, a visual snapshot of the Pacific crane-ship cluster that trains Navy Cargo Handling battalions and reserve mariners. On September 29, 2016, GEM STATE transited San Francisco Bay for a "120-hour turbo activation", a no-notice readiness drill run by U.S. Transportation Command to validate that a five-day Ready Reserve timeline could be met in practice. In July 2019, Military Sealift Command ordered a short-notice turbo activation out of Alameda for GEM STATE alongside KEYSTONE STATE (T-ACS 1) and GRAND CANYON STATE (T-ACS 3). All three cleared the pier within four days and executed a three-day sea trial to prove material readiness and crew activation processes.

Hands-on cargo evolutions with Navy cargo handlers recur throughout the record. From July 29 to August 10, 2018, GEM STATE served as the working platform at Alameda Point for a two-week regimental exercise pairing Navy Cargo Handling Battalion 14 with NCHB 5. Imagery from August 7 shows containers being onloaded across her decks as sailors completed qualifications and practiced unit-to-unit interoperability. The event illustrated the ship's core purpose - lifting containers and vehicles from herself or an adjacent vessel and placing them ashore or onto lighterage without reliance on pier cranes.

In the 2020s, the ship's movements include several open-source-visible transits and European port approaches linked to allied logistics flows. On September 10, 2022, GEM STATE departed San Francisco Bay under her own power. On December 10, 2022, she passed Bremerhaven, Germany, en route to the nearby port of Nordenham for cargo operations. Photography from that day captures her inbound on the Weser. Further imagery places her again on the Weser on June 3, 2023, bound for Nordenham, a routing consistent with U.S. munitions and materiel reception at that long-standing North Sea hub. While specific cargoes were not publicly detailed, the voyages reflect the periodic activation of crane ships for real-world movements as well as exercises.

Most recently, the National Defense Reserve Fleet inventory for January 31, 2025, records GEM STATE in Ready Reserve Force status, assigned to the Pacific with an Oakland/Alameda layberth.

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SS GEM STATE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the GEM STATE berthed next to her sisterships at Alameda, Calif., on March 11, 2008.

The photos below were taken by me and show the GEM STATE berthed next to her sisterships at Alameda, Calif., on March 28, 2010.

The photos below were taken by me and show the GEM STATE passing Bremerhaven, Germany, on her way to nearby Nordenham, Germany, on December 10, 2022.

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