Sealift Incorporated is an American

shipping company A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...

based in

Oyster Bay, New York The Town of Oyster Bay is the easternmost of the three Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns that make up Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is ...

.Sealift Inc 2008, ''Home Page''. The privately held corporation was founded in 1975 by the four owners who remain the principal executives. Sealift Inc. is one of the largest ocean contractors for transporting U.S. food aid and participates in the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement. Between the start of fiscal 2000 and the first quarter of 2008, Sealift Inc. was awarded

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

402,151,046 in contracts. Sealift's main fleet consists of eleven ships:

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, general cargo ships, and a combination general/container ship. The fleet has ships from 12 to 39 years of age, includes two steamships, and three small ships under . Separate from the main fleet, the company also owns the ex-US Navy MSC HSV-2 ''Swift''. In 2015 ''Swift'' was sold to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

' National Marine Dredging Company. On 1 October 2016, she was reported to have been severely damaged by an anti-ship

missile A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this ...

in the

Bab-el-Mandeb The Bab-el-Mandeb (), the Gate of Grief or the Gate of Tears, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and by extension the Indian Ocean. ...

strait, off the coast of

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. Sealift Inc has collective bargaining agreements with the Seafarer's International Union and the American Maritime Officers union.

History

Originally a shipbrokerage house specializing in paper, rice, and general cargo, Sealift Inc operated breakbulk liner services to the Mediterranean and from Brazil. The company currently operates a fleet of twelve U.S.-Flag, ocean-going and is one of the largest ocean transportation contractors for U.S. Government Food Aid cargoes. Sealift Inc. is one of the largest ocean contractors for transporting U.S. food aid and participates in the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement. This program, also known as VISA, supplies the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

with private cargo vessels which it can use to support "contingency deployments." The program saves the government the cost of maintaining a large fleet that would be idle in peacetime. In 2003, the company was awarded an emergency three-month, $4 million contract from

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

to provide freight service to

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. Between the beginning of fiscal year 2000 and the first quarter of fiscal 2008, Sealift Inc. was awarded

402.15 million in 207 separate transactions.USAspending.gov 2008, ''Contracts to SEALIFT HOLDINGS INC (FY 2000-2008)''. $355.69 million was allocated from the Department of the Navy, $24.61 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development, and $21.85 million from the

Department of the Army The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the United States Department of Defense. The DA is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is organized. It is led ...

Fleet

Sealift's primary fleet consists of eleven ships, each of which is a

, a general cargo ship, or a combination general/container ship. ranging from 12 to 39 years of age.Citations for individual ship statistics shown in table to the right. The two steamships and are the oldest, having been built in 1969. The newest ship is the which was built in 1996. The average age for all of Sealift's ships is slightly over 27 years. The company's fleet has a capacity of over . The and are the two largest at and respectively. The company operates two small ships under : the and the . The company previously owned and operated the

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 ...

MT ''Montauk'' which carried

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by Gas turbine, gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for ...

and other petroleum products between

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 ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

under a charter from

Military Sealift Command The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all U ...

. but sold the ship to the Cypriot company Kalia Maritime Co. Ltd. on February 1, 2007. As of 2015, ''HSV-2 Swift'' was reported to have been sold to the United Arab Emirates' ''National Marine Dredging Company''. On 1 October 2016, the ship was attacked and seriously damaged off Yemen.

Houthi The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, is a Zaydi Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaydi Shias, with their namesake leadership being drawn largely ...

rebels claimed the ship sank. According to unnamed US

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

officials, the damaged ship was being towed to Eritrea. The vessel sustained serious damage to its bow, but remained afloat.

Notes

References

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External links

Company Profile at Det Norske VeritasCurrent MV ''Virginian ''contractHSV ''Swift'' contractContainership contract MV ''Fisher'' at MSCMV ''Bennett'' at MSC
{{United States-flag shipping companies Shipping companies of the United States Container shipping companies of the United States Companies based in Nassau County, New York American companies established in 1975 1975 establishments in New York (state) Private military contractors Container shipping companies