The 648-foot

roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, Trailer (vehicle), trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their ...

and

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

, built in 1977, was previously known as ''MV Saudi Makkah'' and ''MV Seaspeed Asia''. She can carry 1,315 containers and has both bow and stern thrusters. After being acquired on 29 April 1994, was in the

Ready Reserve Force The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of ships of the United States, mostly merchant vessels, that have been mothballed but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during national military emergencies, or non-mil ...

. She is generally used to transport vehicles to war zones from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Syrian weapons destruction

''Cape Ray'' played a central role in the 2014 destruction of Syria's declared stockpile of chemical weapons. For that mission she was under the command of civilian master Horace "Rick" Jordan. The ship was outfitted with two Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems manned by

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

civilians, who then performed the destruction operations at sea. On 16 January 2014 the Italian Minister of Infrastructures and Transports,

Maurizio Lupi Maurizio Enzo Lupi (born 3 October 1959) is an Italian politician. He served as minister of infrastructure and transport between 28 April 2013 and 20 March 2015. Early life and education Lupi was born in Milan, Italy, on 3 October 1959. He has ...

, said that ''MV Cape Ray'' would load 530 tons of chemical weapons material in the port of Gioia Tauro in

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, from the Danish ship '' MV Ark Futura''. She deployed on 25 June 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cape Ray 1977 ships Chemical weapons demilitarization Ships built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Transports of the United States Navy