SS Fredericksburg (1958)
| SS Fredericksburg | |
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS Fredericksburg |
| Operator: |
Eagle Carriers, 1958–1976 Keystone Shipping Company, 1976–2004 |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi |
| Yard number: | 1030 |
| Launched: | as Eagle Courier |
| Acquired: | 10 October 1958 |
| Renamed: | Fredericksburg, 1976 |
| Homeport: | Wilmington, Delaware |
| Identification: | IMO number: 5095713 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 16 April 2004 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | T5-S-12b Tanker |
| Tonnage: |
21,901 gross register tons (GRT) 40,006 long tons deadweight (DWT) |
| Displacement: | 26,500 long tons (26,925 t) |
| Length: | 651 ft 7 in (198.60 m) o/a |
| Beam: | 102 ft (31 m) |
| Draft: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Propulsion: | Kawasaki Steam |
| Speed: | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Notes: | Single bottom, double sided hull |
SS Fredericksburg was a single-hulled T5-S-12b oil tanker, originally named the Eagle Courier. The ship was built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi as hull number 1030 and delivered on 10 October 1958.[1] The ship was scrapped in Chittagong, Bangladesh on 16 April 2004.[2][3]
From delivery in 1958 until 1976, the ship was operated by Eagle Carriers. In 1976, she was bought by Keystone Shipping Company and renamed Fredericksburg. She continued to operate as a coastal tanker until 2004.
Fredericksburg was for some time the oldest tanker in the U.S. fleet, and its age showed. She was subject to a number of refittings and retrofittings, such as the 1983 forecastle overhaul.[4] Also, towards the end of her career, she had a number of safety problems. For example, on 10 June 1999 when loaded, after experiencing a steering failure, she "grounded under power at mile forty-three in the Columbia River." Fortunately, she "came ashore in an area of the river characterized by soft mud banks and suffered no damage."[5]
Some of Fredericksburg's problems were detailed in this 1 January 2003 article "Puget Sound's Rustbuckets:"
Fredericksburg has a safety rap sheet a mile long. The Coast Guard cited it for two deficiencies—improper boiler maintenance and damaged hull plates from an encounter with a Houston dock—in 2002 and investigated 26 minor accidents and oil discharges in the preceding nine years. That tally is much longer than the Coast Guard sheet on every younger tanker I examined.[4]
Finally, although "its OPA90 phase-out date is 8-Dec-05, Keystone Tankships will scrap the tanker Fredericksburg rather than incur the cost of its next dry-docking survey, which is due this month (2/6)."[6] In 2004, she was filled with grain in the port of Houston and sailed to Chittagong, Bangladesh where she was driven onto the beach and scrapped. The selling price was reportedly $425 per light displacement ton or 3.7 million U.S. dollars.[7] Fredericksburg was joined by her sister ship Chilbar at the scrapyard later that year.[8]
References
- ↑ "Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula MS, Post-WWII Construction Record". coltoncompany.com. http://www.coltoncompany.com/shipbldg/ussbldrs/postwwii/shipyards/active/gulf/ingalls.htm. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
- ↑ "Maritime Administration Ship Inventory 1998 -- Mothball Fleet". usmm.org. http://www.usmm.org/marad.html. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
- ↑ "Tank Vessels Removed From U.S. Domestic Petroleum Trades, 1994-2005" (PDF). marad.dot.gov. http://www.marad.dot.gov/MARAD_statistics/2005%20STATISTICS/tank%20vessels%20removed%201994-2005.pdf. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Puget Sound's Rustbuckets". seattleweekly.com. http://www.seattleweekly.com/2003-01-01/news/puget-sound-s-rustbuckets.php. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
- ↑ "Evaluation of the New Carissa Incident for Improvements to State, Federal, and International Law". oceanlaw.uoregon.edu. http://oceanlaw.uoregon.edu/publications/new_carissa.html. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
- ↑ "Maritime News Headlines, March 2004". coltoncompany.com. http://www.coltoncompany.com/newsandcomment/headlines/headlines2004q1.htm. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
- ↑ "S&P Monthly Report, March 2004" (PDF). cotzias.gr. http://www.cotzias.gr/reports/cotzias_2004_03_mar.pdf. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
- ↑ "DAILY SHIPPING NEWSLETTER, Number 270, Monday 27-12-2004" (PDF). ibiblio.org. http://www.ibiblio.org/maritime/Scheepvaartnieuws/Pdf/scheepvaartnieuws/2004/december/270-27-12-2004.PDF. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
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