NASSCO Holds Naming Ceremony for Final BP Tanker

General Dynamics NASSCO, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, held a ceremony to name the fourth and final double-hulled oil tanker it is building for BP Shipping Ltd., the Alaskan Legend. The ceremony took place at the NASSCO shipyard. Shirley Anne Massey, the wife of Morehouse College president and BP board member Dr. Walter Massey, was the honoree at the ceremony and is the ship’s sponsor. As ship’s sponsor, Mrs. Massey named the ship and broke the traditional bottle of champagne against it.

Construction of the Alaskan Legend began in October 2004. NASSCO placed a strong emphasis on environmental safety in its design. As with the first three Alaska-class ships, the Alaskan Legend is double-hulled, diesel-electric powered, equipped with 20 separate cargo tanks, and has all of its cargo transfer piping inside the hull rather on its decks to reduce the chance of accidental spills. The ship is capable of carrying up to 1.3 million barrels of crude oil and will operate between Alaska and western U.S. ports. NASSCO will deliver the Alaskan Legend to BP Shipping on August 18.

NASSCO received a contract from BP to build three tankers in September 2000, and a contract to build the fourth ship one year later. The first three Alaska-class ships are already in service: the Alaskan Frontier, Alaskan Explorer and Alaskan Navigator. The Alaska-class tankers are is 941 ft. long, have a beam of 164 ft. and a design draft of 61.5 ft. The ship’s total carrying capacity is 190,000 metric tons at its design draft.