USS Bristol County (LST-1198)

Career (United States)
Ordered:	15 July 1966
Builder:	National Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Laid down:	13 February 1971
Launched:	4 December 1971
Acquired:	27 July 1972
Commissioned:	5 August 1972
Decommissioned:	29 July 1994
Struck:	29 July 1994
Fate:	sold to Morocco, 16 August 1994
Career (Morocco)
Name:	BDC Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah
Acquired:	16 August 1994
Fate:	In service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Newport class tank landing ship
Displacement:	5,190 long tons (5,273.3 t) (light), 8,792 long tons (8,933.1 t) (full)
Length:	522 ft (159.1 m) overall, 500 ft (152.4 m) at the waterline.
Beam:	70 ft (21.34 m)
Draft:	19 ft (5.79 m)
Propulsion:	6 diesel engines, 16,000 brake horsepower, two shafts, Twin Controllable Pitch Screws Bow Thruster - Single Screw, Controllable Pitch,
Speed:	20+ knots (37+ km/h)
Troops:	Marine detachment:360 plus 40 surge
Complement:	14 officers, 210 enlisted
Armament:	4 × three-inch/50 caliber guns in two twin-barrel mounts 1 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS mount.

USS Bristol County (LST-1198) was a United States Navy Newport class tank landing ship.

Bristol County (LST-1198) was named after counties in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She was laid down on 13 February 1971 at San Diego, California, by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company; launched on 4 December 1971; sponsored by Mrs. Robert Lee Town-send; and commissioned on 5 August 1972, Comdr. Donald L. Waggoner in command.

Following commissioning, Bristol County was assigned to the Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet, with the home port of Long Beach. In the years that followed, the tank landing ship alternated amphibious training operations off the west coast of the United States with periodic, sustained deployments to the western Pacific. She maintained this cycle into 1980.

At some point between 1980 and 1984 the Bristol County's home port became San Diego's 32nd Steet Naval Station; mooring at the southmost piers 10, 11, 12 and rarely pier 13.

A story was circulated among the engineering crew that during extended operations in severe storm conditions and rough seas in the Gulf of Alaska (before 1984), the hull began to crack on the port side visible on the 3rd deck from the excape trunk of main control. Shoring was used to control any serious flooding.

Fate

Bristol County was decommissioned and struck 29 July 1994 and disposed of through the Security Assistance Program (SAP), transferred, cash sale, ex-US fleet hull foreign military sale case number assigned, to Morocco as BDC Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah on 16 August 1994.

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• 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

• NavSource