Page 48: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 1984)

Fast Navy Supply Ship Capella

Dedicated At Pennsylvania

Shipbuilding

The first of the U.S. Navy's new class of fast supply ships, the USNS

Capella, was dedicated recently at the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding

Company's yard in Chester, Pa.

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-

PA), was the keynote speaker; his wife, Philadelphia Councilwoman

Joan Specter, dedicated the ship.

Rear Adm. Warren C. Hamm,

USN, Deputy Commander, Mili- tary Sealift Command, also spoke at the ceremony.

The dedication ceremony began with an invocation and concluded with the traditional breaking of a bottle of champagne on the ship's bow. Shipyard employees and their families attended, as did many lo- cal residents and invited guests.

The Capella is one of the Navy's largest and fastest auxiliary ships.

With an overall length of 946 feet, beam of 105 feet 6 inches, depth of 66 feet IV-i inches, and draft of 36 feet 8 inches, the 24,000-dwt ves- sel is powered by a General Elec- tric/Foster Wheeler steam turbine plant of 120,000 shp that gives her a service speed in excess of 33 knots. She carries tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, and other wheeled equipment for an armored division of the U.S. Army.

In one typical arrangement, she will carry 122 M-l tanks, 183 hel- icopters of various sizes, and other assorted wheeled equipment.

Helicopters can land on and take off from two landing pads on the topmost deck, and can be stored in the space below it. Tanks and wheeled vehicles are loaded through a special door on each side of the ship. Each door is fitted with a 73- by 20-foot folding ramp that has a design capacity of 65 tons. These doors give access to 185,000 square feet of stowage area distributed over four decks that are connected by internal ramps.

The heavy duty, 35-ton cranes are fitted amidships to handle loads over the side of the ship, and two more, each of 50 tons capacity, are fitted aft for the same purpose and to serve four cargo holds that are arranged to carry both standard 20-foot and 35-foot containers and up to eight Sea Sheds—open-frame cargo-carrying devices, 35 by 25 by 8 feet—that fit into the same space as three standard containers and are designed to carry outside and extra-heavy (up to 70 tons) loads. Each pair of cranes can also be worked in tandem to provide 70-ton lifts.

The Capella and her sister ships will be independent of port facili- ties, and can load and unload di- rectly from or to floating cause- ways, barges, or other ships—a flexibility that can be extremely valuable in an emergency.

The Capella was built by Rotter- dam Dockyard in the Netherlands in 1972 as the Sea-Land McLean.

She was the first of a revolution- ary new class of eight large con- tainerships, known as SL-7s, built in Europe for Sea-Land Service,

Inc. for operation in the U.S. for- eign trade. At the time, these ships were the largest pure con- tainerships ever built, with a ca- pacity of 1,096 thirty-five foot boxes. What made them unique, however, was their speed. At 33 knots, they could cross the Atlan- tic in four days and operate a two- week sailing schedule comforta- bly. They are still the fastest com- mercial cargo ships of any size or type ever built.

The Capella and three sister ships—Algol, Antares, and Bella- trix—will be operated for the Mil- itary Sealift Command by Sea-Land

Service under a three-year $19.7- million contract just awarded by the Navy. Under the contract,

Sea-Land will man, operate, and maintain the ships in a reduced operating status with a minimum crew aboard. Two of the vessels will be based at Jacksonville, Fla.; the other two will be berthed in

Violet, La. They will be placed in full operating status for 30 days a year for training and exercises purposes.

Sea-Land sold the eight SL-7s to the Navy in 1982 for a total of $271 million. The other four are currently being converted into fast supply ships, and are scheduled to be redelivered to the Navy be- tween October 1985 and March 1986.

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