Type C8-class ships are a type of Heavy Lift Barge Carrier. Type C8 ships were the 8th type of ship designed by the

United States Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The co ...

(MARCOM) in the late 1960s. As done with the

Type C1 ship Type C1 was a designation for cargo ships built for the United States Maritime Commission before and during World War II. Total production was 493 ships built from 1940 to 1945. The first C1 types were the smallest of the three original Maritim ...

s and

Type C2 ship Type C2 ships were designed by the United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) in 1937–38. They were all-purpose cargo ships with five holds, and U.S. shipyards built 328 of them from 1939 to 1945. Compared to ships built before 1939, the C2s we ...

s, MARCOM circulated preliminary plans for comment. The design presented was not specific to any service or

trade route A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a singl ...

. Type C8 ships measuring from stem to stern, and designed to make .

Design

The Type C8 ships are a type of Heavy Lighter aboard ship. The lighter aboard ship or ''LASH'' is a system for loading

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

s or (

lighters A lighter is a portable device which uses mechanical or electrical means to create a controlled flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of flammable items, such as cigarettes, butane gas, fireworks, candles, or campfires. A lighter typica ...

) onto a large vessel for

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

. At the destination, the barge are unloaded and the vessel is then free to move on to the next shipment. Barges and lighters are usually unpowered floating platforms for

inland waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is necessary bet ...

s that are separated from the open

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

s. Barge and lighters are typically towed or pushed around

harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

s or

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s by

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

s. The carrier ships are also known as LASH carriers, barge carriers, kangaroo ships and lighter transport ships. Barges are load into the ship from the rear-

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

of the ship. Two barge-lighters weighing up to 1,000 metric tons placed onto an underwater platform. The ship raises the platform up to the deck. On the deck are special rails to move the lighters down the length of the ship to their holding spot. The ship as a loading power to lift with a force of more than 2,000 Mp.

MARAD Design C8-S-81b

In the late 1960s, shipbuilding engineer Jerome L. Goldman designed the first LASH ships the Acadia Forest and the Atlantic Forest. Avondale shipyard start construction in 1969 of the second LASH ships the C8-S-81b. The eleven C8-S-81b LASH ships were of identical design and built from 1970 to 1973. The 11 ships were used by two shipping lines Prudential Grace Line in New York and

Pacific Far East Line Pacific Far East Line, also called PFEL in short, was a passenger and cargo shipping line founded in 1943 by Thomas E. Cuffe, in San Francisco, California. At the beginning he started by chartering foreign ships to run the lines in tramp trade. La ...

in San Francisco. The price for each ship was $21.3 million.

Ships in type

Avondale Industries Avondale Shipyard was an independent shipbuilding company, acquired by Litton Industries, in turn acquired by Northrop Grumman Corporation. In 2011, along with the former Ingalls Shipbuilding, the yard was part of Huntington Ingalls Industries. It ...

built eleven C8-S-81b at 29,820 DWT each in 1970 - 1971 for the Grace Line. Example is the SS ''Lash Turkiye''. *

Fore River Shipyard Fore River Shipyard was a shipyard owned by General Dynamics Corporation located on Weymouth Fore River in Braintree, Massachusetts, Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts. It began operations in 1883 in Braintree, and moved to its final location on ...

General Dynamics Corporation General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county. Quincy is part of the Greater Boston area as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in ...

built three C8-S-82a at 20,574 DWT each in 1972. The three built for the

Lykes Brothers Steamship Company Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., also called Lykes Lines, was a cargo shipping company acting from the beginning of the 20th century to 2005 having its main business in the trade to and from the United States. History In 1898, the sons of Dr. Howell ...

: SS ''Doctor Lykes'', SS ''Almeria Lykes'' and SS ''Tillie Lykes''. *

Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard Maryland Steel, in Sparrows Point, Maryland, US, was founded in 1887. It was acquired by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in 1916 and renamed as the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard. The shipyard was sold in 1997 to Baltimore Marine Industrie ...

built two C8-S-85d at 27,340 DWT each in 1979. The ''Austral Pioneer'' and ''Austral Puritan'' for the

Farrell Lines Farrell Lines, Incorporated is a U.S.-based shipping company specializing in roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) cargo transportation. Founded in 1925 as the American South African Line by James A. Farrell Jr. and John J. Farrell, the company initially se ...

US Navy Cape M Class Heavy Lift Barge Carrier

C8-S-82a were used by the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and called seabee LASH, (Lighter aboard ship). * SS ''Cape May'' (T-AKR-5063) - Built as SS ''Almeria Lykes'' C8-S-82a * SS ''Cape Mohican'' (T-AKR-5065) built as the SS ''Tillie Lykes'' C8-S-82a * SS ''Cape Mendocino'' (T-AKR-5064) - Built as SS ''Doctor Lykes'' C8-S-82a. In October 2011 she was moved to the

James River Reserve Fleet The James River Reserve Fleet (JRRF) is located on the James River in the U.S. state of Virginia at () near Fort Eustis. James River Reserve Fleet, a "ghost fleet", is part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. The Reserve Fleet ships in sto ...

to the Beaumont Reserve Fleet to the

Beaumont Reserve Fleet The Beaumont Reserve Fleet, was established by act of Congress in 1946, as a component of the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF). The fleet is located in Beaumont, Texas, Beaumont, Texas. History In 1946, the US Government excavated 24 million ...

Lash Lighter Basin

In San Francisco, California is Lash Lighter Basin, located by Heron's Head Park in

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

. The Lash Lighter Basin at

Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco Bayview–Hunters Point (sometimes spelled Bay View or Bayview) is the San Francisco, California, neighborhood combining the Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhoods in the southeastern corner of the city. The decommissioned Hunters Point Naval Sh ...

is a protected port that is used by C8-class ships for loading and unloading lighter-barges. Barges from the

Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel California’s Green Trade Corridor, is part of the Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel, also called the Baldwin-Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel or Stockton Deep Water Channel, is a manmade deepwater wat ...

Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel The Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel (also known as Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel or SRDWSC) is a canal from the Port of Sacramento in West Sacramento, California, to the Sacramento River, which flows into San Francisco Bay. It was ...

and

Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Central California and Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that ...

are taken to Lash Lighter Basin. The Lash Lighter Basin is located at .

Notable incident

* On May 21, 2001, the SS Cape Mohican (T-AKR 5065) was participating in an exercise at Chilpo Beach, just north of

Pohang Pohang (; ), formerly spelled Po-Hang, is the largest city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, with a List of cities in South Korea, population of 499,363 as of 2022, bordering the Sea of Japan, East Sea to the east, Yeongcheon to the w ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. While in the harbor, heavy winds caused her to drag anchor approximately 150 feet and run aground on rocks, causing damage to her hull and internal tanks. This damage required salvage work and emergency dry-docking along with 1500 tons of steel to make her seaworthy again

Type C9 ships

In 1980 Avondale Industries built two 41,500 DWT Type C9-S-81f barge carriers: the SS ''Edward Rutledge'' (now SS ''Spirit'' and the SS ''Edward Rutledge'' (Now SS ''Reliance''). In 1974-75 Avondale Industries built nine 41,000 DWT C9-S-81d barge carriers, some used by the US Navy. C9-S-81d examples are the SS Delta Norte and the SS Delta Mar built in 1971. In 1980-83 Avondale Industries also built three C9-M-132b, but these are 32,800 DWT

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 ...

s built for the American President Line: ''President Washington'' (now M/V ''Manoa''), ''President Lincoln'' (now M/V ''Mahimahi'') and ''President Monroe'' (now M/V ''Mokihana'').SS Cape Fear (AK-5061) C9
''NavSource''

Design C8-S-81b ships

Design C8-S-82a ships

References

{{ModernMerchantShipTypes Auxiliary ship classes of the United States Navy