MarAd disposes of 50-year-old cargo ship

MarAd disposes of 50-year-old cargo ship    The U.S. Maritime Administration said the steamship Solon Turman will be towed from the Suisan Bay Reserve Fleet on Wednesday for scrapping.
   This will be the 17th ship to leave the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, Calif., since October 2009, when the Obama administration announced an effort to clean up the site and improve the surrounding environment.
   MarAd said the vessel's departure puts it 'well ahead of schedule' in removing obsolete U.S. ships from the Bay area. The disposal schedule called for 20 ships to be removed from Suisan Bay by Sept. 30, 2011.    The Solon Turman's departure puts MarAd at 85 percent of its 2011 goal.
   The vessel will be towed to the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, Calif., for recycling by Allied Defense Recycling Co.
   The Solon Turman was a breakbulk cargo vessel built in 1961 by Bethlehem Steel in San Francisco. The vessel entered the reserve fleet at the end of its active service in 1988.