USNS Schuyler Otis Bland (T-AK-277)

The Schuyler Otis Bland AK -277 is the only ship of the series C3 -S -DX1 ( Bland- class).

History

The Schuyler Otis Bland was placed on the U.S. Shipyard Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation in Pascagoula, Mississippi on 9 May 1950 at Kiel. The launch took place on January 30, 1951, with completion on 26 July of the same year. Schuyler Otis Bland was the prototype of the C3 -S- DX1 design of steam turbine driven cargo ships of the United States Maritime Commission ( MACOM ). Following the acquisition of MARCOM by the United States Maritime Administration ( MARAD ) in 1050, the draft was conducted as C3 -S -7a. Named after Congressman Schuyler Otis Bland ship was commissioned in 1951 and was operating in the construction of one of the fastest cargo ships worldwide. Nevertheless, it was slower than the successor construction of the Mariner class, which was eventually built instead of the Bland- class with its interpretation to a speed of 18.5 knots 1.5 to 2 knots.

The only ship of the class was the expired Yard No. 458 Schuyler Otis Bland from the stack. After the transfer to the Maritime Commission on 25 July 1951, the Schuyler Otis Bland was delivered the following day bareboat charter to the American President Lines. After two trips around the world it was, following a General Agency Agreement, the Waterman Steam Ship Corp.. passed. Already on July 25, 1952 put it on the C-3 freighter in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Mobile, Alabama. From 1957 to 1959 American Mail Line ran the ship as a substitute for the reduced in a North Pacific storm Washington Mail. From October 1959 she was launched again, this time in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Olympia, Washington. On 4 August 1961, the Schuyler Otis Bland went to the U.S. Navy, where she was assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service as from 28 August. She left San Francisco on September 28 to charge to Bangkok, Saigon, Manila, Kaohsiung and other Pacific ports to bring. For these trips the ship and the defoliant Agent Orange transported to Japan and later to Vietnam. On August 1, 1970, the Military Sea Transportation Service to the Military Sealift Command, which the Schuyler Otis Bland now USNS (T- AK -277 ) named ship until 1979 continued to champion to transport military supplies worldwide. She was decommissioned in 1979, sold on November 28, 1979, demolition and scrapped in the winter of the same year in Kaohsiung.