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S. S. GREAT LAND
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  O On her last Voyage! She follows her sister ship, SS Westward Venture To BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS See VIDEO O
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IN
HER EARLY DAYS
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Here is S.S. Great Land at Swan Island, OR in 2007  |
S.
S. Great Land, the first of three Ponce Class ships owned by TOTE,
entered service on September 10, 1975, making her maiden voyage
from
Seattle, Washington to Anchorage, Alaska. In August 2003, TOTE chartered the Great Land to Matson Navigation in Hawaii to serve as a vehicle carrier for the next few years. The ship sailed a route between Tacoma, Washington and Anchorage, Alaska, a distance of 1,441 miles, and routinely covered it in two and one-half days at a speed of 24 knots. O This Roro cargo ship was build in 1975 by: Pennsylvania Shipbuilding in Chester, Pa. Hull # 673, Price: 46.0 M, Launched: 17 June 1975 Delivered: 22 August 1975 Length 243 m, Beam 32m. Call sign: WFDP IMO: 7420493 The SS Great Land, a roll-on-roll-off trailer ship, left the Blair Waterway berth Wednesday March 13, 2-13 under tow of the tug Alexandra. The 38-year-old ship is destined for All Star Metals in Brownsville, Texas, where it will be recycled into steel that can be reused to build anything new here in the U.S.A. There were many items removed from GREAT LAND before she departed. Reusable items like bed linen, etc. were taken to several charitable organizations in the Tacoma area. All items used for operating the ship were removed and will be used as spare parts, as needed throughout TOTE's fleet. |
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The
Great Land and its
sister ship, the SS Westward Venture, were designed to carry up to 386
trailers
and 126 vehicles on the 1,500-mile trip to Alaska's largest city. The
trailers were driven
onto the ship via a series of ramps and chained down to the internal
deck.
Because the ships were built in an American shipyard with American labor, they met the legal requirements for service between American ports. The Great Land's nearly 40 years in service was not without its incidents. In the early '90s, the ship sunk at its Tacoma dock during maintenance when a sea-valve was mistakenly left open. The ship was sealed up and pumped out and rehabbed at Seattle's Todd Shipyard. Rough weather in the Gulf of Alaska once literally created a crack in its hull plates that extended from one side of the ship to another. The vessel limped into port and was repaired. Some words were
taken from Tacoma News Tribune - March 16,
2013
The Voyage was tracked through the Panama Canal See map to be used in following her LAST VOYAGE O Tote "MODERNIZES THEIR RORO's" with the MV MIDNIGHT SUN & MV NORTH STAR |
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GREAT LAND Has Traveled the
World Moving Military vehicles from Fort Lewis to the Far-East, she has traversed the Pacific Ocean, the China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Panama Canal, the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf. |
 Click these images :)  |
Aerial View in Tacoma, Wa - Before Voyage
Location Map
"I am very greatful that I was made aware of the ships retirement. My thanks go to Jim Miller.
As to the company that owns these Ocean Trailer Vessels, I am really an outsider and I thank you for putting up with me."
"As for the words "11th Street Bridge", I stood on that bridge in 1987." Vern Bouwman
View other ships reported by my web sites; out of the PUGET SOUND
S.S. OCEAN PHOENIX and USCGC HEALY WAGB-20
