SS ''Green Mountain State'' (T-ACS-9) is a crane ship in

ready reserve The Ready Reserve is a U.S. Department of Defense program which maintains a pool of trained service members that may be recalled to active duty should the need arise. It is composed of service members that are contracted to serve in the Ready Rese ...

for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. The ship was named for the state of

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, which is also known as the ''Green Mountain State''.

History

''Green Mountain State'' was laid down on 2 December 1963 as the break-bulk freighter SS ''Mormacaltair'', ON 298129, IMO 6421347, a

Maritime Administration Maritime administrations, or flag state administrations, are the executive arms/state bodies of each government responsible for carrying out the shipping responsibilities of the state, and are tasked to administer national shipping and boating issue ...

type (C4-S-60a) hull, under MARAD contract (MA 143). Built by

Ingalls Shipbuilding Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, originally established in 1938, and now part of HII. It is a leading producer of ships for the United States Navy, and at 12,500 employees, the second largest ...

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the Gulfport– Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 2 ...

(hull no. 486), she was launched on 20 August 1964 and delivered to MARAD 26 March 1965, for service with Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc. In 1975 the ship was lengthened and converted to a partial

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 intermoda ...

by Todd Ship Yard, Galveston, Texas. She was sold to

United States Lines United States Lines was the trade name of an organization of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) created to operate German liners seized by the United States in 1917. The ships were owned by the USSB and al ...

in 1983 and renamed SS ''American Altair''. US Lines ceased operations in 1986 and the ship was turned over to MARAD in 1987 and placed in the

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

(NDRF). The ship was converted to a MARAD hull type (C6-S-MA60d) Crane Ship at National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, California, and placed in service as SS ''Green Mountain State'' (T-ACS-9) on 15 March 1992, assigned to the Ready Reserve Force (RRF), under operation control of Military Sealift Command (MSC).Silverstone 2011, p. 237

''Green Mountain State'' was berthed at Bremerton,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, where she was maintained in a five-day readiness status, assigned to Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Three. She was removed from MSC control and withdrawn from the RRF by reassignment to the

(Beaumont, Texas) on 28 July 2006. She has since been reassigned to the

Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet is located on the northwest side of Suisun Bay (the northern portion of the greater San Francisco Bay estuary) in Benicia, California. The fleet is within a regulated navigation area that is about long and wide. It ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

Online

SS Green Mountain State (T-ACS-9)
*

External links

National Defense Reserve Fleet Inventory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green Mountain State Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi 1964 ships Keystone State-class crane ships