USACE STURGIS First US Nuclear Powered Vessel

Professional Mariner Forum
1

The US Army Corps of Engineer’s vessel, STURGIS, was towed into Galveston Thursday.

Did a quick google, and it turns out this WWII liberty ship was converted to nuclear power in 1960, and was in service before the Savannah. It ended up being used as a power plant in the Panama Canal until 1978, when it was mothballed. A preliminary decommissioning was done at that time, and all nuclear fuel was removed. Now it has been towed into Galveston to be decommissioned.

Quite a bit of history floating by.

2

Who towed it down? I thought it was still up in the James River fleet. A friend of mine who works at one of the local shipyards says it was a wreck inside.

3

The lead tug, which was just off the picture, was the Crimson Victory, out of Mobile.

4

actually the STURGIS/MH-1A was never propelled by her reactor and in fact was relegated to barge status when she was converted to be the floating nuke plant. Wikipedia has here history here. MH-1A - Wikipedia

Quite a bit of history floating by.

indeed but what amazes me is how attractive Liberty Ship hulls were.

just look at that sweeping shearline on her. Certainly we can’t build that anymore these days…everything must be simply a square box.

5

C.capt surely you know about the Jeremiah O’Brian in San Francisco and the John W Brown in Baltimore that still do excursion cruises. I have made a trip on the Brown and got to see that old steam engine in operation. Its a pretty cool sight.

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I was on the OBRIEN back in January on holiday. . . .

DSC_1039 by cmakin, on Flickr

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[QUOTE=Bayrunner;161157]C.capt surely you know about the Jeremiah O’Brian in San Francisco and the John W Brown in Baltimore that still do excursion cruises. I have made a trip on the Brown and got to see that old steam engine in operation. Its a pretty cool sight.[/QUOTE]

You know we can volunteer on that ship (the Brown) I’m thinking about it this summer when I’m off again.

I talked to them…they always need help with paint, preservation, engine room maintenance.

8

I thought about it but I have always tried to avoid Baltimore like the plague. Even before all of the recent events in the last week.

9

what stuns me is how these wonderful ships were known as “Ugly Ducklings”! They were anything BUT ugly in my opinion…

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A sad end to a noble ship. Sleep well shipmate, your breed is dying fast.

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[QUOTE=c.captain;161168]what stuns me is how these wonderful ships were known as “Ugly Ducklings”! They were anything BUT ugly in my opinion…

[/QUOTE]

I agree. When the tow first came into view, I thought it was a new build, and the exterior paint looked good. As it got closer, I was thinking what new build has the superstructure in the middle? As the tow got closer, the flair of the bow became evident, so I googled liberty ship, and as she went by, the stern confirmed that. Looked like a very efficient hull.

I see now that it was only a barge and not an actual working ship. Missed that article, Thanks for the clarification.