Random Monday : Sea Victory Tugboats
I recently read about the feats of Sea Victory, a oceangoing tugboat operated by Crowley Maritime Corporation – this unassuming looking boat embarked on a 29 day vovage to tow the 45,000 ton battleship BB-63 USS Missouri from Bremerton, Washington to Ford Island, Pearl Harbor near the Arizona Memorial back in 1998 (more info and photos at Star Bulletin and Kitsap Sun).
© Ken Ige / Star Bulletin
In 1999, the ex-battleship BB-62 USS New Jersey was towed by the same boat from Bremerton to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for restoration works before being reworked into a museum ship at Camden, New Jersey.
Sea Victory also towed the ex-battleship BB-61 USS Iowa from Newport, Rhode Island to Suisun Bay, California via the Panama Canal in 2001 – a 6,500 mile journey. (more photos here and here)
Sea Victory’s most impressive vovage must have been the towing of the decommissioned aircraft carrier CV-34 USS Oriskany during a 112-day, 15,153 miles journey from Vallejo, California to Beaumont in Texas in 1999. Haven’t been able to find any pictures of this journey probably because the ship was to be sunk instead of being converted to museum ships like the abovementioned battleships.
Wikipedia Commons does throw up a 2006 photo of the 32,000 ton ex-USS Oriskany being towed by a Crowley tugboat to the Gulf of Mexico where it was deliberately sunk to form an artificial reef there.
More information about this impressive Sea Victory class of tugboats can be found at Crowley Maritime Corporation – the Sea Victory is the first of three boats of its class – the other two being Sea Venture and Sea Vovager, all commissioned in the 1970s.
MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Visby Class Stealth Corvette
Renders of WWII Battleships from Navyfield : Resurrection of the Steel
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