MARAD Removing More Vessels from Fleet

The Maritime Administration has announced that several more vessels from its James River fleet will be shipped to final destinations to be scrapped.

The U-S-S Howard W. Gilmore, a decommissioned submarine tender from the World War Two era, will be towed to a scrap yard in Chesapeake. Bay Bridge Enterprises won the contract worth close to $750,000.

North American Ship Recycling will recycle another vessel, a barge called the UEB. The Maritime Administration sold the barge to the company for $76,000.

As the government disposes of older ships, its efforts will move to newer ones, which will bring better prices in the scrap steel market, said John Jamian, the Maritime Administration’s acting administrator.

One of the vessels soon to leave the fleet, an experimental Navy barge known as the UEB, is being sold for $76,000 to North American Ship Recycling in Baltimore. The deal marks the first time in years that the government will be paid for a junk ship, instead of paying others to accept and scrap its toxic dinosaurs.