AG Schnozz wrote:
> I have no comment about the DoF, but the ship is the Marine Star, aka
> SS Aquarama. It was mothballed in Muskegon for 16 years. I grew up
> seeing it rust away and the local community clammoring for days gone
> by for a cross-lake ferry.
>
> Unfortunately, the Aquarama, a WWII troop carrier, had a single screw
> and a very poor hull design for ferry-boat usage. It had a rich
> history of running into things and putting up a horrid wake.
>
I had the 'fun' of participating in two ship maneuvers, replenishment at
sea and such on a CG summer cruise. Our ship was an ex sub tender that
rolled like crazy between the shallow draft for coral atolls and the
addition of superstructure for radar and weather stuff, but at least it
was twin screw and maneuverable.
The other ship was a single screw ex troop ship with very poor steering
control. Steaming along at a fair clip side by side in moderate and
increasing seas close enough to toss comm wires and cables across and
transfer stuff was quite scary. The large group of men tailing the
supply line were kept very busy running back and forth to play out and
retrieve line and keep it taut. Our comm lines at the bridge level were
lighter, higher above the water and didn't have to remain taut, so they
weren't much trouble.
Strange ship, that. It was from a series designed as 355 footers, then
cut back to 255 feet by simply chopping 100 feet out of the blueprints.
I think that may be why the single screw, as well as why there was no
direct below decks connection between the aft and forward sections of
the ship, one had to literally go up on deck, across the divide, then
down again. They were also made with steel hull plates not all from the
same lot, so it tended to eat holes in itself through electrolysis. Not
surprising that a lot of wartime made ships weren't around anymore.
Moose
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