The Victory Ship News

For the Design issue Greg Trauthwein asked me to write about a favorite ship design. I have no favorite ship design, or should say there are simply too many that are truly worthy of mention. But when considering favorite designs, ship designers (and builders) do carry a strange curse. Unique among engineers (and artists, architects, and industrial designers) their creations only live for about 30 years. With very few exceptions, in their own life time, ship designers get to see the disassembly of most of their creations. I am not aware of any other creations that are so readily tossed aside.

Michael E. Ford, 75, of Waretown, NJ, passed away on January 4, 2014. Born in Washington, DC and raised in Chevy Chase, Md., he graduated from the #United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY, in 1960 with a degree in Marine Engineering, and earned a master’s degree in International Business from Bernard M. Baruch College, New York, in 1979. He served his country as an officer in the United States Naval Reserve. Following his graduation from Kings Point, he sailed for the Alcoa Steamship Company, raising his Coast Guard license to Chief Engineer, unlimited.

Five ships moored in Virginia, California, and Texas will be headed to recycling yards under contracts announced today by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration. Two of the ships are from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in Benicia, Calif.; two are from the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas; and one is from the James River Reserve Fleet in Newport News, Va. Maritime Administrator Sean T. Connaughton siad that plans worked out with Congress called for the removal of at least 13 ships from the fleet sites in 2006, and that the agency has almost doubled that number, removing 25. The ships scheduled for recycling include the Vulcan…

California water quality regulators are close to ordering the U.S. Maritime Administration to obtain state permits and monitor for pollution when it cleans the hulls of obsolete ships from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, government documents show. State regulators became involved in August that hull cleaning was occurring in Richmond without notice to state and local authorities and a later report that government documents show the work left metals and lead paint in the Bay. Now, new documents show that Maritime Administration officials ignored state requests to observe the cleaning last month of another ship in Alameda. No final regional water board decision has been made on whether to regulate the hull cleanings.

The standing joke in the lifeboatman practical portion of the AB class is “...The good news is that you will only have to row and learn the oar commands ... Finding a ship with gravity davits, that will invite an outsider to participate in lowering drills, is no easy task. Schools that teach AB/lifeboatman courses often do a disservice to the mariner by suggesting this method of obtaining the required practical training, knowing full well that finding this arrangement is nearly impossible. Sea School, the College of Nautical Knowledge, admits to some guilt, in the past, in making this recommendation. However, today it can announce that its two-day U.S.