High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Grapple (ARS-53) is a Safeguard-class salvage ship in the United States Navy. She is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. In 2000, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet. Rescue and salvage ships render assistance to disabled ships, provide towing, salvage, diving, firefighting and heavy lift capabilities. The mission of the rescue and salvage ships is fourfold: to debeach stranded vessels, heavy lift capability from ocean depths, towing of other vessels, and manned diving operations. For rescue missions, these ships are equipped with fire monitors forward and amidships which can deliver either firefighting foam or sea water. The salvage holds of these ships are outfitted with portable equipment to provide assistance to other vessels in dewatering, patching, supply of electrical power and other essential service required to return a disabled ship to an operating condition.