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USNS Benjamin Isherwood

USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191), left, being prepared for long-term storage at the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Norfolk, Virginia on 26 August 1994. The guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60) is at right.
History
United States
Namesake	Benjamin F. Isherwood (1822–1915), an early U.S. Navy engineer and rear admiral
Awarded	6 May 1985
Builder	Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Tampa, Florida
Laid down	12 July 1986
Launched	15 August 1988a at Pennsylvania Shipbuilding; christened 7 December 1991 at Tampa Shipbuilding
In service	Never
Stricken	29 December 1997
Identification	IMO number: 8508876
Fate	Scrapped, 2011
Notes	Construction contract cancelled 15 August 1993 when ship 95.3% complete
General characteristics
Class and type	Henry J. Kaiser-class replenishment oiler
Type	Fleet replenishment oiler
Tonnage	31,200 deadweight tons
Displacement	9,500 tons light Full load variously reported as 42,382 tons and as 40,700 long tons (41,353 metric tons)
Length	677 ft (206 m)
Beam	97 ft 5 in (29.69 m)
Draft	35 ft (11 m) maximum
Installed power	16,000 hp (11.9 MW) per shaft 34,442 hp (25.7 MW) sustained total
Propulsion	Two medium-speed Colt-Pielstick PC4-2/2 10V-570 diesel engines, two shafts, controllable-pitch propellers
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Capacity	178,000 to 180,000 barrels (28,300 to 28,600 m3) of fuel oil and jet fuel 7,400 sq ft (690 m2) dry cargo space and eight 20-foot (6.1 m) refrigerated containers with room for 128 pallets
Complement	103 (18 civilian officers, 1 U.S. Navy officer, 64 merchant seamen, 20 U.S. Navy enlisted personnel)
Armament	Peacetime: none Wartime: probably 2 x 20-mm Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried	None
Aviation facilities	Helicopter landing platform
Notes	Five refueling stations Two dry cargo transfer rigs

USNS Benjamin Isherwood (T-AO-191) was a Henry J. Kaiser class fleet replenishment oiler of the United States Navy. She was never completed.

Benjamin Isherwood, the fifth Henry J. Kaiser-class ship, was laid down by the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 12 July 1986. Her construction encountered numerous problems. Although she was launched on 15 August 1988,^a her construction contract with Pennsylvania Shipbuilding was cancelled on 31 August 1989. Along with her unfinished sister ship USNS Henry Eckford (T-AO-192), the incomplete Benjamin Isherwood was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia on 27 October 1989 for lay-up.

A new contract to complete Benjamin Isherwood was awarded on 16 November 1989 to the Tampa Shipbuilding Company of Tampa, Florida. She was towed from Philadelphia to Tampa. While under tow on Christmas Eve off of Corolla, North Carolina she encountered a storm and broke loose from the tow, running aground about 5 miles south of Corolla. There was no significant damage and was towed off the beach a few days later at high tide and continued the trip to Tampa. She was christened there on 7 December 1991. However, construction problems continued, and that contract also was cancelled, on 15 August 1993, when the ship was 95.3 percent complete. Cost overruns had run into the millions of U.S. dollars.

The Navy decided that completion of Benjamin Isherwood as an oiler was no longer necessary, and considered converting her into an ammunition ship, but the conversion was found to be cost-prohibitive. Instead, the nearly complete Benjamin Isherwood was turned over to the Maritime Administration and towed up the James River in Virginia, where she was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet as part of the United States Navy's James River Reserve Fleet at Lee Hall, Virginia. She was struck from the Navy List on 29 December 1997, and her title was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 February 1999. She and Henry Eckford were the only units of the 18-ship Henry J. Kaiser class not completed.

On 12 July 2011, the Benjamin Isherwood departed for Brownsville, Texas, to be recycled by International Shipbreaking Limited.^[1]

•  This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to IMO 8508876.

• Wildenberg, Thomas (1996). Gray Steel and Black Oil: Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U.S. Navy, 1912–1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-934-4. Retrieved 28 April 2009.