Posted on 08/16/2006 7:39:31 AM PDT by GATOR NAVY
NORFOLK - The Savannah, described by some as the most famous ship in the James River Reserve Fleet, arrived under tow Tuesday at Colonna's Shipyard for a sprucing up - and the start of a new life.
The sleek, white vessel was the world's first and the nation's only nuclear-powered cargo and passenger ship - the brainchild of President Eisenhower and part of his Atoms for Peace program in the 1950s.
The work at Colonna's - where the behemoth can be seen across the Elizabeth River from Harbor Park - is primarily preventive maintenance.
It launches a larger government plan to remove the inactive nuclear plant, clean out any remnant radiation and prepare the ship for a new mission as a museum.
Officials with the U.S. Maritime Administration, the caretaker of the reserve fleet and the Savannah's owner, said the ship could be put up for donation as a museum as early as 2010.
Hampton Roads could be in the running.
The federal agency has identified the region as one of three East Coast ports preferred to carry out the ship's nuclear decommissioning. That process, overseen by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, could take more than three years and pump $50 million of shipyard and engineering contracts into the community, officials with the administration said.
The agency is holding a public meeting from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Nauticus to discuss "tentative plans" for bringing the work to Hampton Roads. It would involve pulling out the ship's nuclear plant facilities.
The other two ports being considered are Charleston, S.C., and Wilmington, N.C.
"There are a number of Hampton Roads shipyards and other companies interested in bidding," Erhard Koehler, the agency's project manager, said.
The site of the ship's nuclear dismantling "is in no way tied" to where it would become a museum, Koehler said.
However, he added: "Obviously there are some ports that would like to have the ship as a museum offering themselves" for the decommissioning work.
A decision on who removes the reactor should be made by the end of this year, Koehler said.
The $995,000 contract won by Colonna's Shipyard includes repairing leaks on the main deck, cleaning interior staterooms, repairing cargo wenches and upgrading the lighting, said Richard Sobocinski, the shipyard's vice president of contracts. The work will ready the ship for the next step - hiring a shipyard to blast and repaint the hull. A contract will be awarded this fall.
On Tuesday, under partly sunny skies, a steady breeze and 1 -foot seas, agency officials watched from a boat as three tugs muscled the Savannah into a shipping channel to begin the five-hour trip to Colonna's. The ship likely will never return to the reserve fleet, nicknamed the "ghost fleet," in waters off Fort Eustis in Newport News.
The 36-nautical-mile tow took it under the James River Bridge and over the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel. It paraded by the downtown waterfront before passing under the Berkley Bridge.
Its steel hull was pocked by rust-colored water stains and gray patches where the original primer paint was showing. Despite its faded beauty, the sweeping lines of the national historic landmark, resembling a yacht's, drew one enthusiast to make a four-hour drive.
Jim Lemon drove from Lynchburg to snap photos of the ship from Harbor Park as the tugs maneuvered it down the river's Eastern Branch and alongside a pier in Colonna's yard.
Lemon, 73, a retired mechanical engineer, worked for the company that designed and manufactured major components of the Savannah's nuclear plant.
"It made my heart stop," Lemon said. He last saw the ship in the 1980s, when it was moored near Charleston as a floating museum. "It's a beautiful ship."
# Reach Jon W. Glass at (757) 446-2318 or jon.glass@pilotonline.com.
The Savannah is eased up the Elizabeth River just past the Berkley Bridge by several tugs Tuesday on its way to Colonna’s Shipyard for cleaning and upgrades. BILL TIERNAN/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
She did a stint at Patriot's Point near Charleston, South Carolina in the early 1990s. She was down there when I visited around that time, but I didn't go onboard.
}:-)4
She needs to come home to Savannah, GA.
I toured the NS Savannah several times when it was in Charleston. It was still a beautiful craft then, and could be again with a little love and money.
It's time for her to come home.
Just noticed the line about the reactor. Unless they put it back in, it is gone. There was a giant hole in the deck where the reactor was, but, it was empty.
The NS Savannah passing under the Golden Gate Bridge enroute to the Seattle, WA World's Fair in 1962.
When I was there in 1987, the reactor was still in place. No fuel rods, of course, and you couldn't go into the reactor room, but there were windows through which you could look down into it.
No luck, but I sure do remember seeing her laid up circa 1973-75 in Galveston. My boss at the time had a fishing boat we used to fish the Galveston jetties and off shore rigs. And the sleek, smart lines of the Savannah are hard to forget. I remember her being there...
Surely there are some other Freepers who were in Galveston in the early 70s who might recall her also...
What a striking contrast that ship is. High tech engine and low tech cargo handling equipment. She's an old "boom ship" (named after her cargo booms)
prepare the ship for a new mission as a congressional boondoggle.
BTW from List of civilian nuclear ships
Mutsu, Japan
Otto Hahn, Germany
NS Savannah, United States
Sevmorput, Russia (former Soviet Union)
Re: "The sleek, white vessel was the world's first and the nation's only nuclear-powered cargo and passenger ship - the brainchild of President Eisenhower and part of his Atoms for Peace program in the 1950s."
BTW from List of civilian nuclear ships
Mutsu, Japan
Otto Hahn, Germany
NS Savannah, United States
Sevmorput, Russia (former Soviet Union)
do those ships also have cargo wenches?
"My folks tell me I went on the Savannah as a baby when the ship visited Seattle. My Mom talked about standing in line for hours to get onboard."
The Savannah also came to Portland, and my dad took my younger brother, a neighborhood friend and I to see it...we also stood in line, but I still have a mental image of the beautiful model of the original Savannah -- the first paddlewheel steamship to cross the Atlantic from America to Europe -- on display in the main dining room (?). I wonder if it's still there...
Interesting. I knew about the Russian ships but I had never heard of the Japanese or German ships.
It was here in Savannah waiting for the City Fathers to come up with a plan for a museum. Then it went to Charleston.
They must have put the reactor back in at some point. I went in 1984, so they could have.
It was my understanding that the thing was so severely contaminated that it had to be taken out of service
But no cargo wenches...
Is that an LKA?
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