Ohio to Depart Beaumont Reserve Fleet
The combination container vessel SS Ohio is scheduled to depart the Beaumont Reserve Fleet on Tuesday, April 19, 2011. The vessel was recently sold for recycling to ESCO Marine, Inc. and its departure will reduce the number of non-retention vessels awaiting disposal from the Beaumont Reserve Fleet to eight.
The Ohio was built in 1967 as a combination railway car/container-carrying vessel for Seatrain Lines, Inc. of New York. Named Seatrain Ohio, the vessel was constructed by recombining modified sections from three WWII T2 class tankers. The ship was the last of seven such converted vessels that were fitted with tracks and other special equipment so that railcars could move directly from the docks into the ship’ holds. The ship spent its active career on charter to the U.S. Military Sea Transportation Service, forerunner of today’s Military Sealift Command, ferrying equipment and supplies during the Vietnam War.
The ship was transferred to the Maritime Administration in November of 1973, renamed Ohio and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, first in the James River Reserve Fleet in Virginia and subsequently in the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas.
