Newport News Delivers The U.S.T. Pacific In Record Time

The U.S.T. Pacific, one of the two largest ships built in the Western Hemisphere, was delivered recently by Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va., marking a new U.S. commercial construction record.

Edward J. Campbell, Newport News president and chief executive officer, said the shipyard constructed the U.S.T. Pacific from keel-laying to scheduled delivery in only 11 months. The previous record for large tanker construction was 1 4 - months, and that was f o r a tanker of less than 200,000 deadweight tons. The U.S.T. Pacific displaces 390,000 deadweight tons.

The keel f o r the U.S.T. Pacific was laid on January 8, 1979, and the ship was launched on September 8, 1979.

The vessel was delivered to United States Trust, with Interocean Management Corporation as the ship's operator and Shell Oil Company as term charterer.

The U.S.T. Pacific will carry nearly three million barrels of crude oil, which can be refined into enough gasoline for 1,000 people each to drive a million miles (1.6-million kilometers) — p l u s e n o u g h heating oil to warm some 30,000 homes for a full year.

With an overall length 1,187 (362 meters), a depth of 95 feet (29 meters), and a 228- foot (70-meter) beam, the U.S.T. Pacific has about five times the carrying capacity of a conventional tanker. The ship was contructed building block style, with some subassemblies weighing up to 800 tons (728 tonnes). Despite their size, the margin for error in the placement of these giant subassemblies was measured in fractions of an inch.

The ultra large crude carrier (ULCC) is the sistership of the U.S.T. Atlantic, which was delivered by Newport News Shipbuilding on March 7, 1979.

Newport News Shipbuilding, the world's largest shipyard, is Virginia's largest private employer, and the nation's only shipyard capable of building and servicing the full range of nuclear and conventionally powered ships for both the Navy and commercial customers.

Other stories from January 15, 1980 issue

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