# Usns General John Pope



## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

Just days after the lovely USNS Edwin D Patrick left for demise, the Pope will soon follow. sorry for the delay there are 2 parts on there website as of now.

http://maritimematters.com/2010/05/passage-on-the-pope-begins/


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## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

Didn't know those two old ship were still around,sailed on both of them as a passenger and paid for by Uncle Sam.


John.


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## Klaatu83 (Jan 22, 2009)

I was on the former P2 transport USNS Barrett when it was serving as the training ship Empire State V. I had no idea any of these old passenger transports were still being maintained in the mothball fleet. None of them have been in active service since the early '70s, and that was transporting Korean troops to and from Viet Nam (as was the case with the Barrett). 

What I can't understand is why they've been maintained this long in the first place. Was there anybody anywhere in the government who actually entertained some expectation that these ships would ever again be activated? If so, for what purpose? In any case, the cost of reconditioning these ships prior to re-activating them would undoubtedly have been exorbitant. It would undoubtedly have been less expensive simply to build new ships!


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## mrcanoehead (Sep 15, 2007)

well what a novel idea... keeping a shipbuilding industry around & build to charter... funding a whole transportation system for comerce & the security of a nation... tell me why would members of the house of Lords think like this & not those over in usa in CIRCLE CITY Wash. D.C. sTRANGE EH!!


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## Klaatu83 (Jan 22, 2009)

mrcanoehead said:


> well what a novel idea... keeping a shipbuilding industry around & build to charter... funding a whole transportation system for comerce & the security of a nation... tell me why would members of the house of Lords think like this & not those over in usa in CIRCLE CITY Wash. D.C. sTRANGE EH!!


In the U.S. these days just about the only ships being built anymore are built for the military. The few new commercial vessels that have come into service have been built abroad and re-flagged. In addition, the Navy's Military Sealift Command (equivalent to the British RFA) has become almost entirely an American subsidiary of Maersk. There are virtually no U.S. flag commercial vessels, and most of the few that remain are either operated by Maersk or by companies owned by Maersk. A notable exception is American President Lines, the largest remaining carrier on the West Coast, which has been owned by NOL for years. You may have noticed that their ships are no longer named after famous American Presidents, they now have names more appropriate to the company's new owners, such as "APL China", "APL Japan", "APL Singapore", etc!


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## mrcanoehead (Sep 15, 2007)

such as it goes... hope somone wakes up soon! its never too late to reverse this deterioration, what is to say a crew of TCN'S on FOC ship is reluctant to sail a ship for what ever reason... boy are they in a fix over a barrel you know... time is a comming!


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## mrcanoehead (Sep 15, 2007)

remember hearing a story number of yeas ago abot those FOC's Concerned a tanker owned by ESSO under Foc durring the early days of the 2nd great war, Crew refused to leave Aruba, destined for Halifax unless they had an escort as several ships had departed there only to be sunk & lit up, crew threatened with jail... & still refused to go, also at the time The story goes the east coast of canada was on a very short supply of crude for refining...They finnally gpot their escort & ship returned home, surprisingly no one was incarcerated for this... but there have been more like this I'm Sure...


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