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In this U.S. National Archives photo dated Aug. 9, 1942,
the
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The S.S. Pacific Star, formerly the U.S.S. Crescent
City , is underway to the Port of Brownsville
The last surviving American-built passenger/cargo
ship, the Pacific Star departed under tow a little over a week ago from Mare Island ,
San Francisco Bay ,
en route for Brownsville
Originally christened the USS Del Orleans and launched
in February 1940 at Sparrow Point, Md., the ship ran between New Orleans and
Buenos Aires until being requisitioned by the U.S. government in June 1941. It
was delivered to the Navy, which refitted the Del Orleans as an "attack
transport" and renamed it the Crescent
City — a nickname for New Orleans Leyte . In 1945 the Crescent
City was converted into a temporary
hospital ship, remaining at Okinawa until the
end of the war.
Before its decommissioning in San Francisco Crescent City
was transferred to the U.S. Maritime Commission and placed in the National
Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay ,
Calif.
In 1971 the U.S. Maritime Administration (successor
to the Maritime Commission) loaned the vessel to the California Maritime
Academy Oakland , Calif. Mare
Island
In 2007 the ship was purchased by International
Data Security Inc., which planned to completely renovate it for conversion into
a data center. The plan failed. IDS, which renamed the ship "Pacific
Star," filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 6. Esco bought the vessel at a U.S.
Marshal’s auction the following day for $1. This is actually the second time
Esco has owned the Pacific Star. The first time was in 2004, though the
dismantler opted to sell the ship then rather than tow it to Brownsville
Kris Wood, Esco’s vice president, said dismantling
the 7,000-gross-ton ship should take about three months. First, asbestos and
other hazardous substances have to be removed and dealt with according to
environmental regulations, he said. Esco is a government contractor licensed by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for such work.
"It’ll get turned into the structural steel
that’s in your buildings and the cars that you drive and everything in
between," Wood said.
With scrap prices relatively high, Esco and other
contractors find themselves paying the government for vessels to salvage —
albeit $1 in this case — rather than getting paid to tow them away. That could
change when prices fall again. And while Esco is in the business of cutting up
old vessels for money, people like Wood are able to appreciate the historical
angle — such as the key role the Pacific Star played in the war effort so many
decades ago.
"It has definitely had a very interesting
life," he said. "It was born in the ‘40s and it has had a full
life."
Source: The Brownsville
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