merchant marine use of u.s. navy landing ship tank

8/7/2019 merchant marine use of U.S. Navy Landing Ship Tank

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WW II built LST sailed in civilian service into the 21st century

A few WW II LST hulls had longer civilian than military service use.In 2006, the last WW II built destroyers were decommissioned by the foreign navies that

received them in years after WW II ended. The Philippines still operates a few

Destroyer Escorts and a gunboat version of the WW II minesweeper hull. A fewcountries still operate the ATF and ATA fleet tugs of WW 2 as do some private firms.

One former LST still serves today as the ferry Cape Henlopen in Long Island Sound and

another as the dredge ship Columbus. These are two of the 4 last WW II combat ships inuse in the world.

Many World War II built LST were not retained by the Navy after the end of World War

II. Sales to private sector buyers were common in the late 1940s. These ships wereconverted to a variety of uses.

Some were broken up for scrap and their engines and fittings used on other types of new

and renovated ships. The diesel engines, steering systems and auxiliary motors ofscrapped , cancelled during construction or converted to barges former LSTs were a

major source of components for re-powering steam tugboats . The 1902 built 101 footcoast and harbor tugboat Jupiter ,now an operational museum ship in Philadelphia , was

converted from steam to diesel in a Baltimore , Maryland shipyard in 1949 using

mechanical components of an LST it towed to the shipyard to be the source of parts for

the re-powering of the tugboat . This conversion allowed the tug to stay in commercialservice until 1999. The tug that was one of many that participated in the launching of the

battleship USS New Jersey at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard is docked directly across

the Delaware River from Camden , New Jersey where the battleship is moored as amuseum. The tugboat Saturn , now preserved in Maine, was owned by Independent Pier

Company of Philadelphia along with the Jupiter and repowered the same way alongsidethe Jupiter

The moderate height,lower than a Liberty Ship or Victory Ship type freighter draft,

longer length than most coastal and river freight ship designs then in use, and hullframing features , and low sale prices made the LST suitable for conversions to civilian

use.

Former LST were stripped of the interior spaces and fitted with liquid holding tanks totransport up to 20,000 barrels of petroleum products, and converted a myriad of ways to

haul bulk cargoes. When the modern shipping container developed and increased in use

in the late 1950s barges converted from LST hulls were used to bring quantities ofcontainers of goods in and out of areas too shallow or not generating enough need for a

container ship to come to the port or an area lacking port facilities.The last known LST

hull in use as a general cargo barge was removed from service in 2008 and is for sale.Theshipbroker handling the sale says the barge will likely be purchased by a ship breaking

firm rather than return to service. Barges made from the hulls of WW II LST often

required special ballasting measures to handle under tow like purpose built barges would.


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The post WW II expansion of the offshore oil drilling industry utilized former LST in

several ways. LST hulls were converted to unpowered drilling barges for exploratory and

initial wellhead establishment drilling. The successful use of the LST as a mobileworkshop/repair center in WW II inspired oil companies and well services firms to use

former LST as powered and unpowered oil rig tender vessels. The ships would be docked

alongside the oil rig to provide accommodations, supply storage and workshop space forthe operations of the oil rig. This was in the years before the accommodation and

workshop module mounted on the rig was developed and many of the wells were in more

shallow water and less complex than the modern platforms costing nearly as much as anaircraft carrier. Clusters of wells could be maintained by one former LST that

periodically rotated back for refit and replenishment of supplies.

LST were converted to self propelled dredge ships and towed dredge barges. The dredgeColumbus is still in service today as self propelled, self loading hopper dredge utilizing

portions of the hull and superstructure of LST 987. ARL-10 was a U.S. Navy Landing

Craft Repair Ship converted upon construction from an LST . It was sold to the Canadian

Pacific Railroad in 1966 and converted into a rail trailer ferry. By 1990 it had beenconverted into a non self propelled dredging unit.

There are a few barracks ships still being used by the navy that were built on LST hulls

ordered converted while under construction. The Echols , APB-37 later IX-504 , was

built in 1944 and sold in 2003. It now serves as a water treatment plant for a municipality

in the state of New York. The APL-40 ,ex IX-503 (1975 - 2001) ex USS Nueces (APB-40) is still in service as a barracks barge at the U.S. Navy Naval Ship Repair Facility,

Yokosuka, Japan .

From the late 1940s until 1955 WW II built LST were used by some firms as ocean

going freighters. World War II built LST have a high Metacentric Height. Metacentric

Height (GM) - determines the ability of the ship to right itself and the overall "stiffness"of the ship, or its natural roll period. In general, higher values of GM indicate a vessel has

greater tendency to remain upright, and is therefore considered to be more stable.

However, when the vessel is somehow displaced from its upright position of equilibrium,excessive values of GM tend to increase the forces and accelerations that cause the vessel

to return to the equilibrium position. This reduces the roll period and tends to result in

"snappier" rolls. In addition to making the ship uncomfortable for the crew, these severe

motions increase the forces on the cargo and cargo securing gear There were 2 incidentsof WW II built LST converted into U.S. flagged freighters sinking with multiple deaths

in each instance. In the final months of WW II and after the war ended the United States

Coast Guard developed requirements that if complied with by vessel owners would allowfor the operation of former LST as merchant ships. One of the requirements was that

because the LSTs had thinner hull plates than commercial ships, plating had to be

replaced when it sustained 15 percent thinning rather than the traditional merchant shipstandard of 25 percent. In 1952 the sinking of the , converted from an LST ,M.V.

Southern Isle led to restrictions on the amount of bulk cargo that could be carried on a

converted to a freighter LST and additional requirements for structural modifications for

the ships to remain in ocean going service. In December of 1954, the converted from an


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LST, MV Southern Districts , while carrying a cargo of sulphur, sank with loss of all

crew members in the Atlantic Ocean with no bodies being ever sighted or recovered .

The United States Coast Guard revoked the authorization of WW II built LST hulls tobe used as self propelled ships for unlimited ocean coastwise routes before the

investigation of this instance of the loss of 23 mariners was completed.

The USS Washtenaw County , LST 1166, was one of the ships of the Terrebonne Parish

class of LST commissioned in 1953 . These were improvements on the WW II LSTdesign. The Washtenaw County was sold to private sector owner after decommissioning

in 1973 and operated as a freighter until removed from service because of mechanical

problems in the early 1980s.

WW II built LST were converted into ferry vessels in coastal areas and on the Great

Lakes.

One LST served for 25 years as a ferry on the Great Lakes and after many years of lay

up became a museum . Another is still in service.

LST-393 was laid down on 27 July 1942 at the Newport News Shipbuilding & DrydockCo.; launched on 11 November 1942; sponsored by Miss Lucy Jean Sorenson; and

commissioned on 11 December 1942, Lt. John H. Halifax, USNR, in command. During

World War II, LST-393 was assigned to the European theater including the Normandy

invasion

Following the war, LST-393 returned to the United States and was decommissioned on 1

March 1946 and struck from the Navy list on 14 March 1947. On March 28, 1948, theship was sold to a private sector owner for conversion to merchant service. It was

renamed the Highway 16 . It served, with bow doors and landing ramp welded shut, as a

ferry carrying automobiles between Muskegon, MI and Milwaukee ,Wisconsin untilsometime in the year 1973 It was then laid up. The ship eventually became a museum

ship in 2005 in Muskegon, MI.

The former USS Buncombe County (LST-510 ) has since 1983 served as a ferry between

Orient Point, New York and New London, Connecticut.

LST 510 was laid down on 27 September 1943 at Jeffersonville, Ind., by the

Jeffersonville Boat and Machine Co.; launched on 30 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs.C. P. Watson; and placed in reduced commission on 18 January 1944. Departing her

builders' yard three days later, on 21 January, LST 510 proceeded down the Mississippi

River to New Orleans, where she was placed in full commission on 31 January 1944, Lt.George P. Andrews in command. The ship was assigned to the European theater and was

at the Normandy Invasion. It was decommissioned on July 1, 1946 . Buncombe County

(LST-510) was deemed "unfit for further Naval service" on 27 October 1958, and hername was struck from the Navy list on 1 November 1958. In 1960 or 1961, the ship was

sold to the Chesapeake Bay Ferry District, of Norfolk, Va., the Commonwealth of

Virginia government agency which operated the ferry service across the Chesapeake

Bay from the Little Creek area of Virginia Beach to Kiptopeke, Virginia on the Eastern


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Shore side of the Chesapeake Bay and renamed MV Virginia Beach. Ship was sold by

the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1964 or 1965 ,upon the ending of the Chesapeake Bay

ferry service with the April 15, 1964 opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel , tothe Delaware River and Bay Authority Ship was renamed the Cape Henlopen of the

Cape May., New Jersey Lewes, Delaware ferry. The ship was sold to Cross Sound

Ferry Services Inc. in 1983 and underwent a total refurbishment before entering servicebetween Orient Point, New York and New London Connecticut where it remains in

service at present. Ship had new engines and structural changes to the bow done in the

21st century.

merchant marine use of u.s. navy landing ship tank

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