USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO-188)

300px USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO-188) underway in reverse during sea trials, February 1987
Career (USA)
Namesake:	Joshua Humphreys
Ordered:	20 January 1983
Builder:	Avondale Shipyard
Laid down:	17 December 1984
Launched:	22 February 1986
In service:	3 April 1987-29 June 1996 and 23 February 2005-1 October 2006
Out of service:	29 June 1996-23 February 2005 and 1 October 2006
Status:	Inactive Reserve Fleet, Philadelphia, PA.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Henry J. Kaiser-class oiler
Type:	Fleet replenishment oiler
Tonnage:	31,200 deadweight tons
Displacement:	9,500 tons light Full load variously reported as 42,382 tons and 40,700 long tons (41,353 metric tons)
Length:	677 ft (206 m)
Beam:	97 ft 5 in (29.69 m)
Draft:	35 ft (11 m) maximum
Installed power:	16,000 hp (11.9 MW) per shaft 34,442 hp (25.7 MW) total sustained
Propulsion:	Two medium-speed Colt-Pielstick PC4-2/2 10V-570 diesel engines, two shafts, controllable-pitch propellers
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/hr)
Capacity:	178,000 to 180,000 barrels of fuel oil and jet fuel 7,400 square feet dry cargo space; eight 20-foot refrigerated containers with room for 128 pallets
Complement:	103 (18 civilian officers, 1 U.S. Navy officer, 64 merchant seamen, 20 U.S. Navy enlisted personnel)
Armament:	Peacetime: none Wartime: probably 2 x 20-mm Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried:	None
Aviation facilities:	Helicopter landing platform
Notes:	Five refueling stations Two dry cargo transfer rigs

For a ship with a similar name, see USS Humphreys.

USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO-188) is a Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler of the United States Navy. She was named for Joshua Humphreys, who designed the six original US Navy frigates.

Construction and delivery

Joshua Humphreys in reserve at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility

Joshua Humphreys, the second ship of the Henry J. Kaiser class, was specially built for the Military Sealift Command (MSC). She was laid down at Avondale Shipyard, Inc., at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 17 December 1984 and launched on 22 February 1986. She entering non-commissioned U.S. Navy service with a primarily civilian crew on 3 April 1987.

Service history

1987-1996

Joshua Humphreys served in the United States Atlantic Fleet under MSC control until taken out of active service on 29 June 1996, the second ship of her class to be deactivated. She was subsequently berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) at the site of the former Philadelphia Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and placed in reserve.

2005-2006

Joshua Humphreys was reactivated on 23 February 2005. She was deactivated again on 1 October 2006, and again placed in reserve at the Philadelphia facility, where she is moored in the Delaware River.

2010

In March 2010 Atlantic Marine in Philadelphia was awarded a USD12.8 miliion contract for the reactivation of the Joshua Humphreys. From May 2010 the ship is to join the US Fifth Fleet in support of counter-piracy and counter-terrorism operations in the Indian Ocean and Gulf area.[1]

References

• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

External links

• NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO-188)
• USNS Joshua Humphreys (T-AO 188)
• Wildenberg, Thomas (1996). Gray Steel and Black Oil: Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U.S. Navy, 1912-1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/GSBO/index.html. Retrieved 2009-04-28.