Alaskan Mail Class
 Fore ship of Cape Girardeau
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The Alaskan Mail class of the Marad Design C5-S-75a was a five-unit type of ship built by American Mail Lines . The fast freighters are considered to be one of the last highlights of conventional general cargo shipbuilding at the beginning of the container revolution .
history
The design of the Alaskan Mail class was commissioned by the US shipping company American Mail Lines from the New York marine engineering firm JJ Henry, Inc. The five ships, each costing a good 16 million US dollars, were built by MARAD as part of the Long Range Shipbuilding Program as type C5-S-75a. The shipyard Newport News Shipbuilding from Newport News delivered the ship series 1968/69 within a year. The ships were finally used on the services operated by American Mail Lines from the United States to Asia. After around ten years of service, all five ships were passed on to American President Lines in 1978/79, which the quintet renamed to names beginning with "President" according to the APL nomenclature. Another ten years later, the ships were returned to MARAD, which assigned some ships to the US reserve fleets, but left some in service with the Lykes Lines shipping company . Three of the remaining ships have since been part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) or Ready Reserve Fleet (RRF), two of them were sent for demolition in 2008 and 2009. One of the ships, the former Korean Mail , was scrapped in 1995. The last ship, the original Indian Mail , remained operational until 2007 and has been used by the Texas Maritime Academy as the USTS Texas Clipper IV floating training facility since October 2009 .
technology
Newport News Shipbuilding built a design that differed in many respects from the usual general cargo ships with a slightly streamlined bridge house just behind the center of the ship, a heavily sloping stern with a bulbous bow and a sharply tapered stern. The division of the seven cargo holds was more unusual, if not so noticeable. The basic breakdown was that of a conventional general cargo express carrier at the beginning of the container age. However, the holds were equipped with a number of advanced details. The hatch covers with a large degree of deck opening on the main deck, in conjunction with the large hydraulic tween deck hatches, were intended to ensure problem-free vertical access to the cargo. The transshipment facilities in this area consisted of light cargo booms in the typical bipod design and a 70-tonne heavy lift gear attached in the middle that could serve holds 5 and 6. These included the hatches in the tween decks that were set up as container holds with a separate air-pressure pallet system. The ships had refrigerated holds. In addition, under the cargo holds, additional cargo tanks were sometimes arranged in the lower space, which were also suitable for loading goods that had to be specially separated through hatches between decks.
The type of ship reached speeds of almost 21 knots thanks to its geared steam turbine drive. Both the machinery and numerous other facilities on board were automated or remotely monitored in order to reduce the number of crew members.
Overview
Five MARAD Type C5-S-75a ships were built.
| Alaskan Mail Class | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Commissioning | Shipyard / construction number | Building name | Renaming and whereabouts |
| October 29, 1968 | Newport News Shipbuilding / 587 | Alaskan Mail | 1978 → President Adams , 1988 → Cape Girardeau , z. Currently RRF |
| December 31, 1968 | Newport News Shipbuilding / 588 | Indian Mail | 1978 → President Jackson , 1988 → Cape Gibson RRF, 2009 → Texas MA Texas Clipper IV |
| April 25, 1969 | Newport News Shipbuilding / 589 | Korean Mail | 1979 → President Taylor , 1989 → Stella Lykes , broken off in 1995 |
| July 25, 1969 | Newport News Shipbuilding / 590 | Hong Kong Mail | 1978 → President Wilson , 1987 → Sue Lykes , 1988 NDRF, 1996 → Wilson , canceled in 2008 |
| October 22, 1969 | Newport News Shipbuilding / 591 | American Mail | 1978 → President Cleveland 1988 NDRF, 1989 → Cleveland , canceled in 2009 |
Individual evidence
literature
- John H. LaDage: Merchant Ships: A pictoral Study . Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge 1968.
- Cudahy, Brian J .: Box boats . How container ships changed the world. Fordham University press, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8232-2568-2 .
Web links
- Table at Shipbuildinghistory.com (English)
- Table at Shipbuildinghistory.com (English)
- Report on the class (English)
- Description of the class (English)
- Technical data Class (English)