I’m aware of that, I do remember Lykes Lines and spent a number of years on tugs. It was sarcasm (mostly) since “George II” reminds me more of a soap box derby racer than a conventional “ship” name.
Lykes use of family members made me think of the days of Liberty Ships, which were usually named after historical figures or the vessel’s sponsor and given their full name.
Not even US shipyards? (Or their foreign owners)
But it’s still far cheaper to do that than to just have ships built in America, which is the problem. It provides the wrong incentive for these companies. They constantly say the JA is about national security and then let Chinese yards work on wall of their ships doing major projects.
What should happen is the US build requirement should be amended to allow partner shipyards in japan, Korea, and others to build jones act compliant vessels. Our fleet would be more modern and we wouldn’t need china basically rebuilding all the APL, Matson; etc ships.
Which is exactly what the Chinese are hoping for. Because once that happens and the existing US yards go out of business, then how easy will it be for the Chinese to cut off our access to those yards in their own backyard? Whether it be thru soft (diplomacy/sanctions) or hard (military strike) action, we would have access to no ocean going shipbuilding capability.
That wouldn’t put the US yards out of business. We already have next to no capacity, and with what it costs to build state side we will never be able to pump out ships at scale like we did in the past. That doesn’t exist anymore. Instead we allow these companies to outsource huge modifications and basically the reconstruction of their vessels in CHINA to skirt the JA.
Working with partner nations to bolster our merchant fleet would provide us newer ships, at lower costs. That’s really what it boils down to. Until then we will have no new US merchant ships and continue to age our USMM fleet.
If they don’t want to do that, then ban foreign shipyard work for these vessels. Oh wait we can’t do that because our shipyard capacity here is a joke and nobody in government cares to subsidize merchant shipping.
We also already use foreign shipyards for our own military vessels is Asia. Right in their backyard. So that point also doesn’t add up.
See “Westhampton Trust.”
If it’s not a decrepit sack of crap then I don’t care if it’s a hundred years old and if it is, I don’t care if it’s brand new.
The steel on those older ships is 10x better than the two new build jones act ships I’ve been on. It probably made sense to pay the tariff and repower them to keep the steel.
I could be wrong, but I also heard that if they replace those ships instead of repowerinh/upgrading them it affects their monopoly/near monopoly on that specific run.
Correct on the monopoly. And the steel definitely is better. But the idea we’re gonna keep these ships for 100 more years and never upgrade or modernize our fleet is just a poor outlook in my opinion.
The crewing crisis, reliance on China for shipyard repairs, and overall power of our own merchant marine are hurt by having super old ships.
I do not know all the ins & outs and details of what is payable with regards to Customs duty but if I recall modifications (vs repairs) are not dutiable, and there are exclusions for arrivals two or more years after last departure.
I think repowering would be considered a vessel modification and I believe it has been out of the country for more than 2 years.
Screen shot of the George II off a webcam entering Honolulu a short while ago. Hopefully someone will take a picture that really shows what she looks like up close.
Some decent pictures of the George II in Honolulu taken by weeboopiper.
Her engine room to stern
A sensible loooong way from the accommodation.
Never sailed on the Reliance but many days at sea on the old LASH boats. One of the best steam plant layouts. Only pia was the DFT and changing bells.
Accommodations were good forward, as long as your not pounding into the seas.
I wonder if they changed the shaft line as the LASH boats had 10% slip with a clean bottom.
Tell that to the long-defunct Lykes lines.
They didn’t change the shaft alignment, but they did change the propeller. In the ole days 10% would have been a good day on her. No idea how things are since it’s been repowered.
I’ve heard about the high slip on those ships. Heard someone say one captain used to sail trimmed down by the head, was said to have some fast passages.
Wasn’t a big deal when you were pay $2 bbl for bunkers.
Negative drag wasn’t possible when carrying fully loaded barges. I remember a certain CM trying and the hogs back could be seen looking down the crane rail. ChEng corrected him, backing the watch as we had the handwritten ballast sequence order in hand.
