Obsolete containership departs Beaumont site

Obsolete containership departs Beaumont site    The combination container vessel Ohio will depart the U.S. Maritime Administration's Beaumont, Texas, reserve fleet on Tuesday.
   The vessel was recently sold for recycling to ESCO Marine, and its departure will reduce the number of 'non-retention' vessels awaiting disposal from the Beaumont Reserve Fleet to eight, MarAd said.
   The Ohio was built in 1967 as a combination railway car/container-carrying vessel for Seatrain Lines of New York. Named Seatrain Ohio, the vessel was constructed by recombining modified sections from three World War II-era 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.
   Transferred to MarAd in November 1973, the vessel was 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.