The C2-L-Class was one of two container ships existing class of the American shipping company Sea-Land Service . The two container ship conversions of MARAD Design C3-S-45a were made as conversions of former general cargo carriers of the type C2-S-AJ1 and were in service until the 1970s. One of the ships, the Santa Eliana, was the first ship to transport containers abroad under the flag of the United States and hit the headlines as Mayaguez during a capture by the Khmer Rouge towards the end of the Vietnam War .
Both ships were built at the end of the Second World War as conventional general cargo ships White Falcon and Santa Leonor of the type C2-S-AJ1 of the United States Maritime Commission and served in the post-war period from 1947 as Santa Eliana and Santa Leonor of the shipping company Grace Line .
In 1959/60, the Grace Line had both ships extended and converted into container ships for about 6.9 million US dollars at Maryland Shipbuilding & Drydock Company in Baltimore. The planning was done by George G. Sharp, under whose direction the conversion of the Gateway City had already been carried out. The planned Grace Line Seatainer Service from Newark to La Guayra was the first container service from the United States to foreign countries, but it began with massive opposition from South American dock workers. The negotiations that followed ultimately meant that the ships remained in service for almost two years before they could resume liner service.
In 1964, the pair of ships was sold to the shipping company Sea-Land Corporation , which they renamed Sea and Land . A year later, Sea-Land Service sold both ships on. The new owner renamed the ships Mayaguez and Ponce . The Mayaguez was captured by the Khmer Rouge while retreating from Vietnam at sea in 1975 and shortly thereafter liberated by American troops . The Ponce was sold for scrapping in 1978 and the Mayaguez followed her in 1979.
The ships
C2-L class
Building name
Shipyard / construction number
IMO number
delivery
Client
Later names and whereabouts
Santa Leonor
North Carolina Shipbuilding, Wilmington / 118
5312317
1944
United States War Shipping Administration, San Francisco
Land , Ponce , scrapped in 1978
White Falcon
North Carolina Shipbuilding, Wilmington / 114
5312044
1944
United States War Shipping Administration, San Francisco
Santa Eliana , Sea , Mayaguez , scrapped in Kaohsiung from May 27, 1979
Data: Equasis, large tonnage
literature
Brian J. Cudahy: Box boats . How container ships changed the world. Fordham University press, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8232-2568-2 , pp.70/71 .
