The American Racer- class or Challenger II- class of the Marad Design C4-S-64a was a ship type built in five units of the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD). One of the ships, the American Racer, transported the first containers from the United States to Europe in March 1966 .
The design of the type C4-S-64a was commissioned by the US shipping company United States Lines and continued the development line of the three ships of the Marad Design C4-S-60a built in the early 1960s . The construction of the five ships, each costing a good twelve million US dollars, was commissioned by MARAD as part of the Long Range Shipbuilding Program from the Sun Shipbuilding Company Chester, Pennsylvania, which delivered the series of ships in 1964/65. The ships were finally used on the services operated by the United States Lines from the United States to Northern Europe. After 18 years of service, all five ships were decommissioned in 1983 and returned to MARAD. Two of the ships, the American Resolute and American Ranger , were scrapped in 2003, the American Rover followed in 2004. The two remaining ships had been part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) in Suisun Bay since July 1983 . In August 2010, MARAD handed the last two ships, American Racer and American Reliance, to the Esco Marine demolition yard in Brownsville / Texas for scrapping . In January 2011, both ships passed the Panama Canal in tow and finally arrived for demolition in the second half of the month.
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Sun Shipbuilding built a design that differed in many respects from the usual general cargo ships with a streamlined bridge house just behind the center of the ship, a heavily forward-sloping stem with a bulge and a cruiser stern. The division of the cargo holds was more unusual, if not so noticeable. The original division was that of a conventional general cargo ship. Holds 1 to 4 were located in front of the bridge superstructures. After the front hold 1, there was space 2, which was completely designed for refrigerated cargo, and holds 3 and 4, which were also divided lengthways, with hatches in three rows and three decks each. 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 and a 70-tonne heavy lift gear attached in the middle that could serve holds 3 and 4. In the stern, behind the superstructure, there were two more dry holds. Under cargo hold 5, additional cargo tanks were arranged in the lower space of the stern, which were also suitable for loading goods that had to be specially separated through hatches between decks. Shortly after construction, holds 3 and 4 were converted into container holds by removing the tween decks and installing cell guides .
The type of ship reached speeds of 21.5 to 22 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. In 1968 this even led to a brief and ultimately unsuccessful strike by the ship officers' union concerned.
