Gordon Lane
Member
Not a great deal of patriotism being shown over there! You bought the QM so thought this one would be a certainty. Saw her myself late one evening in the Delaware and she has got charisma.
The big yards in the U.S are doing Naval and MSC (I believe they have a different name now) which are crewed by merchant marine officers. They are not building cruise ships, tankers, or container ships in the U.S.
Its not economical and doesn't make sense on many levels, but I think its sad to see these old steam ships go away. A big part of our history.
Lots of wood boats are savable at that age.
They may need to drydock to find out.
So if the first two responders think it’s “toast” I’ll bet they can’t tell if the hull has rusted from the outside in or from the inside out.
Other than the hull plating what else would be toast? She’s in fresh water in PA I would assume. There was an old sailing ship in the south end of Lake Union in Seattle that was 100 years old many years ago. Lots older than the SSUS. Don’t recall what happened to her but she was very much afloat. Most of her wood features were probably rotten or replaced.
I’m not going to “invest” in the possibility of the SSUS being sound however I suspect at this point nobody knows.
Much as I wish beautiful, old ships like this could be saved, CaptRonn's comment above is the bottom line. Unless some billionaire comes along (a few millionaires won't be enough), and decides to dedicate a significant portion of his net worth to this project, it's not going to happen.If the people wanting to save it had to put up their own money it would be long gone.
Akers Shipbuilding in Philadelphia IS building tankers. Crowley has had several Jones act tankers delivered. I believe OSG (Over Sea Group) has had tankers delivered as well. Akers is the old Philadelphia Naval ship yard.
I didn't realize that. How large, and how many tankers are Akers/OSG putting out per year?
This is indeed good news.Akers Shipbuilding in Philadelphia IS building tankers. Crowley has had several Jones act tankers delivered. I believe OSG (Over Sea Group) has had tankers delivered as well. Akers is the old Philadelphia Naval ship yard.
I listed earlier a long list of those building ships in the US. Austal, Bollinger, Edison Chouest, Fincantieri, General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls, Keppel, Philly, Vigor, and Halter. Most of those are building 1 to 2 a year but some, like Chouest, build a lot of ships. Now, most of what Chouest builds go to the Gulf and Oil industry.
This thread is about large ships, so I was specifically asking about Oil Tankers (VLCC), Big Cruise Ships, and Container Ships (say 11,000 TEU and up). It was my understanding that these were not being constructed in the U.S., except for Naval and their MSC counterpart. IE, there may be Product Carriers (not VLCC's) and other large vessels being constructed in the noted yards, but not the large variety. I only quickly googled some of the sites you have noted, and they describe building large shore supply ships, big tugs, and repair of larger vessels,but they do not appear to be involved in the construction of large ships.
When demand calls for it, container ships are built in the US. All the ships TOTE and Crowley use are. TOTE recently had Orca Class Ships built for their use in Alaska. There are oil tankers built in the US. According to Overseas Shipholding Group there are 94 oil tankers currently in service and here's a Bloomberg article talking about the increase. General Dynamics built American Liberty, Constitution, and Independence for SEA-Vista.
The quantities are still small compared to the rest of the world, but it is happening. The only type vessel I am not aware of being built in the US recently is a Cruise Ship. I'm also not aware of any recent recreational vessels over 200', although Westport is working on 213' in their first steel yacht.
Are they large (VLCC) Crude, and large TEU's container ships? There are smaller versions tankers, container ships, and cruise ships. A tanker can also be a "Product" carrier and it will lighter and off load VLCC's or do coastal runs to smaller ports. There are small 300 ft. long container ships that do the same. There are 400 ft. cruise ships which take people to Alaska or on coastal runs. None of these are what I am referring to.
If you have some hard data to show the types of ships I am describing are being built here, I would be interested to see it.
Does The Jones Act require ships going between US Ports to be made in the US ? Perhaps that is the reason Tote and Crowley are building ships here. Not because it can be done competitively, or because they choose to...but because that's the only way they can serve their market. If they weren't required to build their ships here, would they still do it, or would go elsewhere ?
TOTE Alaska 839', 600 FEU.
Matson Kanaloa, 870', 3500 TEU
Independence, Constitution and Liberty, 610' 330,000 barrel capacity