James River ship sold for recycling
The U.S. Maritime Administration said it had sold the James River Reserve Fleet ship Suribachi for recycling to International Shipbreaking Ltd. of Brownsville, Texas.
The ship, a breakbulk AE21 class ammunition ship built in 1956 at the Bethlehem facility, Sparrows Point, Md., brought a purchase price of $20,001. The vessel is tentatively scheduled for departure on July 2.
The Suribachi with full displacement of 15,688 tons, was among the first specialized underway replenishment ships built after World War II. Decommissioned in 1994 after 38 years of service, the vessel has been moored at the James River Reserve Fleet site in Newport News, Va.
MarAd stores ships at three National Defense Reserve Fleet sites: the James River site, the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas, and the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in California. When ships become obsolete, MarAd arranges for their disposal in an environmentally sensitive manner. When a ship is recycled, as this one will be, the recycler often salvages and sells metal and other materials, and disposes of other materials in accordance with state and federal law.