SS ''Fredericksburg'' was a single-hulled T5-S-12b

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...

, originally named the ''Eagle Courier''. The ship was built at

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, as of 2023, is the largest private em ...

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula metropolitan area, and is part of the Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi, Biloxi–Pascag ...

as hull number 1030 and delivered on 10 October 1958. The ship was scrapped in

Chittagong Chittagong ( ), officially Chattogram, (, ) (, or ) is the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Home to the Port of Chittagong, it is the busiest port in Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. The city is also the business capital of Bangladesh. It ...

, Bangladesh on 16 April 2004. From delivery in 1958 until 1976, the ship was operated by Eagle Carriers. In 1976, she was bought by

Keystone Shipping Company Keystone Shipping Company is an American shipping and transportation company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company operates a fleet of ships for both dry bulk cargo and tankers. Keystone Shipping Company has a fleet of over 2 ...

and renamed ''Fredericksburg''. She continued to operate as a coastal tanker until 2004. ''Fredericksburg'' was for some time the oldest tanker in the U.S. fleet, and its age showed. She was subject to a number of refittings and

retrofitting Retrofitting is the addition of new technology or features to older systems. Retrofits can happen for a number of reasons, for example with big capital expenditures like naval vessels, military equipment or manufacturing plants, businesses or go ...

s, such as the 1983 forecastle overhaul. Also, towards the end of her career, she had a number of safety problems. For example, on 10 June 1999 when loaded, after experiencing a steering failure, she "grounded under power at mile forty-three in the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

." Fortunately, she "came ashore in an area of the river characterized by soft mud banks and suffered no damage." Some of ''Fredericksburg''s problems were detailed in this 1 January 2003 article "Puget Sound's Rustbuckets:" Finally, although "its OPA90 phase-out date is 8-Dec-05, Keystone Tankships will scrap the tanker ''Fredericksburg'' rather than incur the cost of its next dry-docking survey, which is due this month (2/6)." In 2004, she was filled with grain in the port of Houston and sailed to

, Bangladesh where she was driven onto the beach and scrapped. The selling price was reportedly $425 per light displacement ton or 3.7 million U.S. dollars. ''Fredericksburg'' was joined by her sister ship ''Chilbar'' at the scrapyard later that year.

References

External links

Keystone Shipping Co.

SS ''Fredericksburg'' datasheet at merchantships-international.at
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fredericksburg 1958 ships Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi Type T5 tankers Oil tankers