MARAD 29-03

Contact: Robyn Boerstling
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Tel.: (202) 366-5807

The sixth ship to leave the James River Fleet since October, the 1945-vintage cargo ship Marine Fiddler, was towed from Newport News, Virginia, today to be dismantled at Bay Bridge Enterprises in Chesapeake, Virginia.

The James River Reserve Fleet is maintained by the Maritime Administration (MARAD), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. For the past 10 years, very few ships left the fleet, but MARAD has recently developed an aggressive plan to remove high-priority vessels. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta praised the combination of determination by the Bush administration and a long-awaited appropriation from Congress that made it possible for the MARAD to move the ships out.

"As stewards of the environment, the responsible disposal of obsolete ships is a high priority for the Bush administration," said Secretary Mineta. "This is the first time in 10 years we've been able to dispose of ships at this rate."

The Marine Fiddler was built as a cargo ship and converted later to a heavy-lift ship. It carried a number of unusual cargoes, including a $15-million art collection from Europe to the U.S., a nuclear reactor to Greenland, and more than 6,000 refugees to safety from North Vietnam.

"The Marine Fiddler has a proud history and appropriate disposal should be the final chapter," said Maritime Administrator Captain William G. Schubert.

So far this year, in addition to the contract with ISL, the U.S. Maritime Administration has awarded the following contracts for removal of ships from its fleet:

• ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Texas, was awarded a contract for one ship, $778,837.
• Marine Metals of Brownsville, Texas, was awarded a contract for one ship, $414,768, and it has also dismantled another ship, for which it was awarded a contract in 2002.
• Post-Service Remediation Partners (PRP) of New York, New York (now a subsidiary of AbleUK): 15 ships, $14,846,338.
• Bay Bridge Enterprises of Chesapeake, Virginia, was awarded contracts for five ships, $2,763,082.
• Resolve Marine Group, Port Everglade, Florida, was awarded a contract for one ship, the Albert E. Watts, located in Mobile Bay, Alabama, $3,465,779.

Twenty-four ships either have been removed or scheduled for removal from MARAD's fleet this year, 23 of them from the James River Reserve Fleet. MARAD is acting on a statutory deadline of Sept. 30, 2006 to dispose of these obsolete ships in a manner that provides the best value to the government and without predisposition for foreign or domestic facilities.