SS Fredericksburg (T5)

The 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 October 10, 1958. [cite web
title = Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula MS, Post-WWII Construction Record
url = http://www.coltoncompany.com/shipbldg/ussbldrs/postwwii/shipyards/active/gulf/ingalls.htm
work = coltoncompany.com
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007] The ship was scrapped in Chittagong, Bangladesh on April 16, 2004. [cite web
title = Maritime Administration Ship Inventory 1998 -- Mothball Fleet
url = http://www.usmm.org/marad.html
work = usmm.org
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007] [cite web
title = Tank Vessels Removed From U.S. Domestic Petroleum Trades, 1994-2005
url = http://www.marad.dot.gov/MARAD_statistics/2005%20STATISTICS/tank%20vessels%20removed%201994-2005.pdf
work = marad.dot.gov
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007]

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. [cite web
title = Puget Sound's Rustbuckets
url = http://www.seattleweekly.com/2003-01-01/news/puget-sound-s-rustbuckets.php
work = seattleweekly.com
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007] Also, towards the end of her career, she had a number of safety problems. For example, on June 10, 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." [cite web
title = Evaluation of the New Carissa Incident for Improvements to State, Federal, and International Law
url = http://oceanlaw.uoregon.edu/publications/new_carissa.html
work = oceanlaw.uoregon.edu
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007]

Some of Fredericksburg's problems were detailed in this January 1, 2003 article "Puget Sound's Rustbuckets:"

quote|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. [cite web
title = Puget Sound's Rustbuckets
url = http://www.seattleweekly.com/2003-01-01/news/puget-sound-s-rustbuckets.php
work = seattleweekly.com
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007]

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)." [cite web
title = Maritime News Headlines, March 2004
url = http://www.coltoncompany.com/newsandcomment/headlines/headlines2004q1.htm
work = coltoncompany.com
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007] 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. [cite web
title = S&P Monthly Report, March 2004
url = http://www.cotzias.gr/reports/cotzias_2004_03_mar.pdf
work = cotzias.gr
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007] Fredericksburg was joined by her sister ship Chilbar at the scrapyard later that year. [cite web
title = DAILY SHIPPING NEWSLETTER, Number 270, Monday 27-12-2004
url = http://www.ibiblio.org/maritime/Scheepvaartnieuws/Pdf/scheepvaartnieuws/2004/december/270-27-12-2004.PDF
work = ibiblio.org
accessdate=February 25 | accessyear=2007]

References

External links

* [http://www.keyship.com/ Keystone Shipping Co.]
* [http://www.merchantships-international.at/FREDERICKSBURG_IMO5095713.pdf SS Fredericksburg datasheet at merchantships-international.at]