Aquarama

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Aquarama
Sketch of the Aquarama
Sketch of the Aquarama
Ship data
other ship names
  • Marine Star
Ship type Freight and troop transporter
passenger ship with vehicle deck
Shipyard Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company , Chester, Pennsylvania
Launch 1945
Whereabouts Scrapped in Aliağa in 2007/08
Ship dimensions and crew
length
158.68 m ( Lüa )
width 21.85 m
Draft Max. 7.93 m
measurement 12,773 GRT, 10,894 NRT
Machine system
machine 2 × General Electric steam turbines
Machine
performance 		10,000 PS (7,355 kW)
Top
speed 		22.0 kn (41 km / h)
propeller 1 × fixed propeller
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers 2500
Vehicle capacity 160 cars
Others
Registration
numbers 		IMO 5021114

The Aquarama (formerly Marine Star ) was a troop transport built in the United States during World War II , which was later converted into a passenger ship. She was the largest passenger ship ever used on the Great Lakes .

history

The ship was built in 1945 by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company in Chester, Pennsylvania as the third of five combined cargo and troop carriers of the type C4-S-B5 . After being launched on April 30, 1945, the ship was delivered to the United States War Shipping Administration as a Marine Star in July of the same year . The Marine Star was only used once as a troop transport and was launched in 1952 .

In 1955, the Sand Products Corporation in Muskegon (Michigan) acquired the ship and had it converted into a liner liner for 2500 passengers with a car deck for the transport of up to 160 cars for around eight million US dollars. The first phase of the renovation with the basic shipbuilding work took place from autumn 1952 to early summer 1953 at the Todd shipyard in New York . The ship was then transferred to another Todd shipyard in New Orleans, where further work took place. In New Orleans, two pontoon-shaped floating bodies with an additional buoyancy of around 900 tons were attached to the stern of the ship so that a maximum draft of 2.75 meters could be maintained. After the ship was again transferred to Muskegon, the final construction of the ship began in the spring of 1954. In contrast to the usual practice, this was carried out by mostly non-shipyard operations under the supervision of the owners. Most notable after the renovation was the strikingly elegant lines of the ship. Details such as the streamlined superstructure with side panels made of stainless steel sheet, the dome-shaped chimney dummy with integrated bridge or the aft exhaust post made the ship an extraordinary appearance. The interior design with numerous Art Deco details included several restaurants and bars, a cinema and many other entertainment options on nine decks. However, there were no passenger cabins on board the Aquarama , as the ship was only designed for the short crossing between Detroit and Cleveland and day and evening trips. The Aquarama , made entirely of steel, was able to come up with safety devices such as a smoke alarm system or automatic fire doors. Another remarkable detail were the escalators , which were installed on a seagoing ship for the first time and led up from the car deck to the passenger decks.

The Aquarama published in Buffalo

After the renovation was completed, the new name Aquarama was found for the ship in a competition. In July 1956 the ship was put into motion by the Michigan Ohio Navigation Company . In the following eleven years of operation on Lake Erie , the ship never made a profit, but it made some negative headlines. Due to a series of mostly smaller collisions , the difficult to maneuver ship earned the nickname Crusherama or Crash-O-Rama , due to the susceptibility to wind , the Aquarama often arrived late or was completely canceled for trips. The high speed also caused a strong swell and correspondingly unpleasant waves on the bank.

In 1967, the uneconomical ship was taken out of service and finally abandoned after a replacement operation for a car ferry on Lake Michigan was broken up due to high dredging costs for the fairway to Milwaukee .

The laid-up ship was sold several times in the following years and towed to other berths. Since 1995 it has been under the old name Marine Star at the Cargill Pool Elevator in Buffalo Harbor . After new plans for the preservation of the unique ship were made over and over again during the decades of lay berth, the ship left the port of Buffalo in tow on August 4, 2007. On September 16, 2007, the 62-year-old ship arrived at the abandoners in Aliağa , Turkey ; scrapping began at the end of October / beginning of November 2007.

literature

  • Kr .: “Aquarama” a passenger ship for the Great Lakes in North America in Hansa No. 5/6 of February 4, 1956, Schiffahrts-Verlag “Hansa” C. Schroedter & Co., Hamburg, pp. 296–298.
  • Sawyer, LA; Mitchell, WH: From America to United States - The History of the long-range Merchant Shipbuilding Program of the United States Maritime Commission - Part Two . 2nd Edition. World Ship Society, Kendall 1981, ISBN 0-905617-12-6 , pp. 85 .

Web links