SS Fredericksburg (1958)

History
United States
Name| SS Fredericksburg
Operator|

* Eagle Carriers, 1958–1976
* Keystone Shipping Company, 1976–2004

Builder| Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi
Yard number| 1030
Launched| 20 June 1958 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

[edit]

1. ^ "Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula MS, Post-WWII Construction Record". coltoncompany.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2006. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
2. ^ "Maritime Administration Ship Inventory 1998 – Mothball Fleet". usmm.org. Archived from the original on 2 January 2007. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
3. ^ "Tank Vessels Removed From U.S. Domestic Petroleum Trades, 1994–2005" (PDF). marad.dot.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2006. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
4. ^ a b "Puget Sound's Rustbuckets". seattleweekly.com. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
5. ^ "Evaluation of the New Carissa Incident for Improvements to State, Federal, and International Law". oceanlaw.uoregon.edu. Archived from the original on 17 February 2007. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
6. ^ "Maritime News Headlines, March 2004". coltoncompany.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2006. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
7. ^ "S&P Monthly Report, March 2004" (PDF). cotzias.gr. Retrieved 25 February 2007. [dead link]
8. ^ "DAILY SHIPPING NEWSLETTER, Number 270, Monday 27-12-2004" (PDF). ibiblio.org. Retrieved 25 February 2007. [dead link]

## External links

[edit]

* Transport portal

* Keystone Shipping Co.
* SS Fredericksburg datasheet at merchantships-international.at