USNS American Explorer

American Explorer
History
United States
BuilderIngalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, MS
Laid down9 July 1957
Launched11 April 1958
Completed27 October 1959
HomeportBeaumont, Texas
IdentificationIMO number7737171
Nickname(s)Hull# 469
FateScrapped
Class overview
Preceded byMaumee class
Succeeded bySealift Pacific class
General characteristics
TypeType T5-S-RM2a Tanker
Tonnage14,980 GT
Length595 ft (181 m)
Beam80 ft (24 m)
Draft36.1 ft (11.0 m)
Speed20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement47

USNS American Explorer (T-AOT-165) was a tanker built for the United States Military Sea Transport Service. The tanker was built by Ingalls SB of Mississippi in 1958, and at the time her keel was laid, the vessel was intended to be the world's first nuclear-powered tanker, but was completed with a conventional steam power plant. The ship was transferred to the US Maritime Administration in 1984 and was part of the US Reserve Fleet, Beaumont Reserve Fleet, Texas. American Explorer was sold for scrap on 8 July 2008 to the Southern Scrap Metal Corporation in New Orleans, Louisiana.[1] On 13 August, two weeks before Hurricane Gustav struck the Southeastern Louisiana coastline, the tanker was moved to New Orleans' Industrial Canal.[2]

The Florida Avenue Bridge was struck and damaged by one of two military ships during Hurricane Gustav
  1. ^ Basic ship data – American Explorer Property Management & Archive Record System, Division of Reserve Fleet Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Shannon Russell (16 July 2008). "Two Ships from Beaumont Fleet Sell for $1.6 Million" (PDF). U.S. Department of Transportation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2008.