MarAd to Remove 100th Obsolete Ship

The Maritime Administration has completed arrangements for the removal and disposal of the 100th antiquated ship from government storage since the ship disposal program first received Congressional appropriations in Fiscal Year 2001. The Dutton was originally constructed in 1945 as the Tuskegee Victory, one of 534 Victory ships constructed by the Maritime Commission during World War II. The Victory ships were built and deployed in the later stages of the war, operated for a brief period after the war, then laid up for several years. In 1958, the Dutton was converted from a supply vessel to an oceanographic survey vessel supporting America's Polaris Fleet of submarines. It served well into the 1980s and was decommissioned in 1988. The contract for the Dutton is the 100th ship disposal contract negotiated in the current disposal program.

The agency has awarded the ship disposal contract to All Star Metals, Inc., to remove the World War II-era ship Dutton from the agency's Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas and for the aging vessel's subsequent dismantling in Brownsville, Texas. The total value of the contract award is $1,078,000.