Thread: 'Ghost Fleet' ships heading to Brownsville scrap yard

'Ghost Fleet' ships heading to Brownsville scrap yard

July 15, 2011 10:59 AM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — Two Navy ships built at a cost of $300 million are leaving Virginia waters for a Texas salvage yard never having been fully completed or having gone on a mission.

The Benjamin Isherwood began its final journey earlier this week, while the Henry Eckford is scheduled on Tuesday to leave its mooring in the James River Reserve Fleet.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that the 600-foot-plus oilers are being towed to International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, Texas, where they will be cut up and their innards removed. The steel and other metals will be sold as recycled products.

Their departure will leave fewer than 20 ships in the ``Ghost Fleet'' off Fort Eustis in Newport News. At its height, the fleet topped more than 80.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/h ... -news.html

USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191)

From Wikipedia

This article is about the U.S. Navy oiler. For the Navy engineer and rear admiral, see Benjamin F. Isherwood. For two U.S. Navy destroyers named USS Isherwood, see USS Isherwood.

USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191) being prepared for long-term storage at the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Norfolk, Virginia.

Career (United States)

Name:
USNS Benjamin Isherwood

Namesake:
Benjamin F. Isherwood (1822-1915), an early U.S. Navy engineer and rear admiral

Awarded:
6 May 1985

Builder:
Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Tampa, Florida

Laid down:
12 July 1986

Launched:
15 August 1988[1] at Pennsylvania Shipbuiklding; christened 7 December 1991 at Tampa Shipbuilding

In service:
Never

Struck:
29 December 1997

Fate:
Never completed

Status:
In reserve; incomplete; Scrapping in progress, July 2011

Notes:
Construction contract cancelled 15 August 1993 when ship 95.3% complete

General characteristics

Class and type:
Henry J. Kaiser-class replenishment oiler

Type:
Fleet replenishment oiler

Tonnage:
31,200 deadweight tons

Displacement:
9,500 tons light
Full load variously reported as 42,382 tons and as 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) sustained total

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 sq ft (690 m2) dry cargo space and 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

United States Naval Ship USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191) is a Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler of the United States Navy.

Benjamin Isherwood, the fifth Henry J. Kaiser-class ship, was laid down by the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 12 July 1986. Her construction encountered numerous problems. Although she was launched on 15 August 1988,[2] her construction contract with Pennsylvania Shipbuilding was cancelled on 31 August 1989. Along with her unfinished sister ship USNS Henry Eckford (T-AO-192), the incomplete Benjamin Isherwood was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia on 27 October 1989 for lay-up.

A new contract was awarded on 16 November 1989 to the Tampa Shipbuilding Company of Tampa, Florida, to complete Benjamin Isherwood, and she was towed from Philadelphia to Tampa. She was christened there on 7 December 1991. However, construction problems continued, and that contract also was cancelled, on 15 August 1993, when the ship was 95.3 percent complete. Cost overruns had run into the millions of U.S. dollars.

The Navy decided that completion of Benjamin Isherwood as an oiler was no longer necessary, and considered converting her into an ammunition ship, but the conversion was found to be cost-prohibitive. Instead, the nearly complete Benjamin Isherwood was turned over to the Maritime Administration and towed up the James River in Virginia, where she remains in reserve in the National Defense Reserve Fleet as part of the U.S. Navy's James River Reserve Fleet at Lee Hall, Virginia. She was struck from the Navy List on 29 December 1997, and her title was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 February 1999. She and Henry Eckford were the only units of the 18-ship Henry J. Kaiser class not to be completed.

On 12 July 2011, the Benjamin Isherwood departed for Brownsville, Texas to be recycled by International Shipbreaking Limited.

Notes

1.^ The Naval Vessel Register ([1]) and navysite.de USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO 191) agree on this launch date, although Navsoure.org NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191) claims the launch date was 15 December 1988
2.^ The Naval Vessel Register ([2]) and navysite.de USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO 191) agree on this launch date, although Navsoure.org NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191) claims the launch date was 15 December 1988

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
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191)

NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191)
USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO 191)
Ex-USNS Vessels to Depart for Texas]
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. Retrieved 2009-04-28.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Benja ... _(T-AO-191)

CLOSE ALL FOREIGN BASES, BRING OUR TROOPS HOME AND PUT THEM ON OUR BORDER