T2 tanker

The T2 tanker, or T2, was an oil tanker constructed and produced in large quantities in the United States during World War II. The largest "navy oilers" at the time, nearly 500 of them were built between 1940 and the end of 1945.

Designs

T2 design

Standard T2s were 501 feet 6 inches in total length, with a beam of 68 feet. Rated at 9,900 tons gross (GRT), with DWT|15,850|long|first=yes, standard T2s displaced about 21,100 tons. Steam turbines driving a single propeller at 12,000 shaft horsepower delivered a top speed of 15 knots. Six were built for commerce by Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard in Maryland, only to be taken over by the United States Navy following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

T2-A design

The T2-A type tanker was an early design variation. Bigger but faster, they were 526 feet in total length, displaced about 22,445 tons, and were rated at 10,600 tons gross with DWT|16,300 -- yet they attained a top speed approaching 16½ knots.

T2-SE-A1

By far the most common variety of the T2-type tanker was the T2-SE-A1, another commercial design already being built in 1940 by the Sun Shipbuilding Company for Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. They were 523 feet long, 68 feet abeam, with GRT|10,448|first=yes and DWT|16,613. Their turbo-electric propulsion system delivered 6,000 shaft horsepower, with maximum thrust of 7,240 horsepower, which produced a top-rated speed of about 15 knots with a cruising range of up to 12,600 miles. After Pearl Harbor, the United States Maritime Commission ordered this model built "en masse" to supply U.S. warships already in accelerated production. 481 were built in extremely short production times by the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company of Mobile, Alabama, the Kaiser Company at their Swan Island Yard at Portland, Oregon, the Marinship Corp. of Sausalito, California and the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Chester, Pennsylvania. During that period, average production time from laying of the keel to "fitting out" was 70 days. The record, however, was held by Marinship, which had the SS "Huntington Hills" ready for sea trials in just 33 days.

T2-SE-A2

The T2-SE-A2 variation, built only by Marinship of Suasalito, was nearly identical to the T2-SE-A1 version, only with maximum thrust of 10,000 horsepower rather than the former’s 7,240.

References

*
* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0711F83D54107B93CAA81788D85F478485F9 Ship Failure Laid to Steel, Welding] New York Times, March 18, 1943

ee also

*List of Type T2 Tanker names
* Liberty ship
* Type C1 ship
* Type C2 ship
* Victory ship
* SS Marine Sulphur Queen T2 tanker, lost in the Bermuda Triangle

External links

* [http://www.t2tanker.org/ The T2 Tanker page]
* [http://t2tanker.piranho.de/index.htm T2 tanker page with extensive list of ships and their fate]