MARAD SHIPS CONTINUE TO SERVE IN RECOVERY EFFORT

Updated November 25, 2005

Five ships from MARAD’s National Defense Reserve Fleet continue to serve in the national effort to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  The Training Ship Empire State has moved from the ConocoPhillips Alliance Refinery in Belle Chase, LA, to the Port of New Orleans.  It is providing meals and shelter for workers at the Port of New Orleans, relieving three MARAD ships that have been performing this task since mid-September. The State of Maine has returned to the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, after serving for more than two months at the Port of New Orleans.  The Training Ship Sirius will be moved to Lake Charles, LA, joining the Texas Clipper II, which is already there, providing meals and shelter for port workers, stevedores, warehouse workers, contractors, and students from nearby McNeese State University.  Soon the Texas Clipper II will move on, going into drydock to prepare it for a long-term mission with the U.S. Navy.  The Ready Reserve Force Ship Wright will soon be leaving the Port of New Orleans, stopping for repairs before returning to its home port of Baltimore.  The Ready Reserve Force ship Cape Vincent remains at Chalmette, LA, providing assistance to port workers.  The workers live in trailers on the ship’s cargo deck, and the ship provides meals for them.

Eleven MARAD ships altogether have served in the recovery effort along the Gulf Coast.  Three of them are training ships, provided to state maritime academies; seven have been ships of the Ready Reserve Force, which MARAD owns and maintains to assist the U.S. Armed Forces in armed conflict or other emergencies.  This deployment marks the first time that a Secretary of Transportation requested the deployment from the Department of Defense.  The one remaining ship was an inactive ship, part of the overall National Defense Reserve Fleet, all of which MARAD maintains and operates.