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March, 2008 Moran Tug Service Signs Contract with Cameron LNG January, 2008 Moran Commences Operations in Two North Carolina Ports January, 2008 Moran Acquires a Tugboat Simulator from MarineSafety International April, 2007 Once Again, Moran Towing of Texas Receives the OSPRA Award January, 2007 Continued Growth for Moran LNG ship-docking services December, 2006 Moran Towing and Compania Maritima Pacifico Sign Long Term Marine Services Agreement November, 2006 Paul R. Tregurtha Voted "Maritime Man of the Year" by Massachusetts Maritime Academy November, 2006 Moran's Participation in U.S. Coast Guard Demonstration Earns Citation for Merit October, 2006 Expansive Tugs Area Maritime Company Adds Boats to its Fleet News Article Archive |
Navy Ship Begins Trip to the Bottom Press Release June 14, 2001 Retired vessel will be cleaned, sunk to create diving reef off Florida coast By Paul Clancy The Virginian-Pilot Copyright 2001 The Virginian-Pilot, used with permission. ON THE JAMES RIVER - Thick rusty cables sang as they ran through the chocks on the old landing craft. Workers on the old rust bucket of a ship to which it had been tethered shouted and cursed as the lines were cast off. "Clear!" someone yelled. "All clear!" And the Spiegel Grove, a 46-year-old landing craft that had been waiting for this day, began to move Wednesday morning, the wooden fenders between it and its next-door neighbor creaming as the ship rubbed against them. "Look at that, would ya!" exclaimed David Tomlinson, a former sailor who now prepares old ships for burial at sea. "She's really beautiful." The 510-foot workhorse of a navy LSD, or landing ship dock, that had taken part in more than 30 years of military maneuvers around the world, was parting company with the 105-ship James River Reserve Fleet that sits and waits, rusts and leaks at anchor off Fort Eustis. But unlike many of its neighbors that are likely to be sold for scrap, the Spiegel Grove is destined for Key Largo, where it will be scuttled and sent to the bottom. There, in 130 feet of green water, it will be an aftificial reef for scuba divers. "It's a much better wasy for a sailor to die, to have a proper burial at sea instead of being cut for scraps," said Tomlinson, president of Ocean Reefs Inc., a nonprofit company that was created specifically to strip surplus ships of environmentally harmful substances and sink them for use as diving reefs. The project, costing upwards of $500,000, is being paid for mostly by hotal taxes collected near Key Largo, where thousands of scuba divers and snorkelers flock to see coral reefs. Under Ocean Reef's direction, the work of preparing the ship will be done by Accurate Marine Environmental Inc. at its facility next to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. The job of scraping flaking paint, removal fuel and toxic substances like polychlorinated biphenyls and altering passageways to make the ship more diver-friendly, will take at least three months. The reserve fleet, commonly called the "mothball" or "ghost" fleet, is facing a crisis as the cost of maintaining the ships grows and the danger of oil leaks increases. In recent testimony before Congress, an official of the Maritime Administration, which maintains the fleet, said 40 of the vessels were in extremely poor condition. The cost of cleaning up after a relatively small release of oil from one of the ships was $1.3 million. Yet, the environmental laws have prevented the governmant from selling the ships to foreign firms which have cut them up for scraps. The domestic scrap market, because of low prices for steel, is almost non-existent. "We made a tragic mistake in not getting rid of these ships earlier," said James A. Mattox, a one-time Texas congressman and attorney general who is chairman of Ocean Reefs. The Moran Towing Corp. tug Cape Cod eased the Spiegel Grove out of its berth between several ships that remain rafted together. Crews will later close up the gap left with the ship's departure. "Clearly when you look at these ships you can see there's no way any of them can be put back in service," he added. "It would be cheaper for the U.S. government to pay cleaning and disposition of these ships than keeping them." Named for the home of Rutherford B. Hayes, the country's 19th president, the Spiegel Grove was home ported at Little Creek Amphibious Base. It was launched at Pascagoula, Miss., in November 1955. In its day, the ship constantly shuttled back and forth between the Mediterranean, where it was frequently deployed, and Little Creek. It took part in the evacuation of Lebanonin 1976 and frequently supported military exercises in the Caribbean. It was decommissioned in 1989 and moved to the Mothball Fleet. It took six years to get approval to move it. It has a strong local following and a website at http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/5455/lsd-32.htm. Said Tomlinson, an operations specialist when he was in the Navy, "For a lot of guys, this was their first experience away from home - 18-year-olds. This was where they grew up." |
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