Hurricane Gustav - Ship ID (WW2 Tanker in New Orleans?)

[AntEater]

What is that grey painted ship there?
It looks like a WW2 era tanker.

[UnderseaLcpl]

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index....roke_loos.html


Here's a little info on it.

Army Corps staffers on a tour of storm damage saw three barges and a 500-foot ship jammed against the bumpers of the L & N railroad bridge - also known as the Almonaster railroad bridge -- on Monday evening.

That must be this one.

Brewer confirmed that at least the two ships were owned by Southern Scrap, a company that buys old vessels to take apart for scrap. Repeated phone calls were made to local Southern Scrap offices, but nobody answered.

Must be an old ship. Maybe it is ww2-era.


Seeing it grounded like that makes me sad. I'd much rather see it broken in half, sliding into the abyss

[bookworm_020]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

Seeing it grounded like that makes me sad. I'd much rather see it broken in half, sliding into the abyss

Agreee with you there!. Looks like one of the ships you see in SH3 that have attached themselves to the docks!:hmm:

[The Bandit]

http://www.allbusiness.com/north-ame...4101851-1.html
looks like it came from the beaumount reserve fleet.

[AntEater]

This ship is apparently USNS Courier, build 1945 and converted into a floating radio station in the 1950s.

Interesting, how many WW2 ships are still in reserve, or were until a short time ago.
Lots of Victory, T2, T3 and others. But soon there will be no "bridge forward" tanker left, as all the T2s and T3s are disposed of.
Some other well known ships are still there for "historic review" like the WW2 tender Sperry or the salvage vessel Florikan (that salvaged serveral sunken japanese submarines)

[The Bandit]

lol I just spent a few hours finding that out, searching the MARAD data base ( http://www.pmars.imsg.com/rosterFleet.asp?Loc=41 ) of ships that were at beaumount and were sold to Southern Scrap, and then looking at pictures and counting booms. I dunno if its right but according to Navsource Courier was built in 1962.

The Navsource link
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/13/135019.htm

[AntEater]

Ok, I confused two ships.
USGC Courier was a C1 coastal cargo ship that served as a floating radio station.
It was pained in the usual white USCG colours.
Much smaller, painted white and with bridge aft.
This one is the 1962 military cargo ship Courier.

[The Bandit]

don't feel bad, the press made the exact same mistake. I wonder if Southern even has the facilities to scrap it at this point or weather its going to be repoed because they defaulted on the contract.

[AVGWarhawk]

Was this ship wandering around in the Industrial Canal the day Gustav hit?