 Edvard Grieg | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | SSEdvard Grieg |
| Namesake | Edvard Grieg |
| Builder | Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard,Baltimore, Maryland |
| Laid down | April 24, 1943 |
| Launched | May 24, 1943 |
| Acquired | May 31, 1943 |
| Renamed |
|
| Fate | Scrapped, 1972 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Liberty ship cargo ship |
| Displacement | 14,500 long tons (14,733 t) full |
| Length | 441 ft 6 in (134.57 m) |
| Beam | 56 ft 11 in (17.35 m) |
| Draft | 28 ft 4 in (8.64 m) |
| Speed | 12.5knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph) |
| Armament |
|
SSEdvard Grieg was aLiberty ship built in the United States duringWorld War II. She was named afterEdvard Grieg, a Norwegian composer and pianist. She was laid down as theSSThomas F. Bayard afterThomas F. Bayard, but she was renamed before being put into service, as she was chartered toNorway. In 1951 she was sold and renamedUltragaz São Paulo. In 1951 she was converted to aLiquid natural gas Carrier. In 1952 she was sold and renamedMundogaz São Paulo. In 1972 she was removed from service.[1]
The ship was commissioned by the United StatesWar Shipping Administration from theBethlehem Fairfield Shipyard inBaltimore. The Liberty ship was laid down on April 24, 1943, and launched on May 24 asThomas F. Bayard. After delivery on May 31, 1943, it went under the management ofNortraship in London as Edvard Grieg in a barebone charter to the Norwegian state. In December 1946 Andreas Stray from Farsund acquired the ship and in February 1950 the Edvard Grieg was transferred to theOslo company A/S Sobral.
After the end of the Second World War, the need to transport liquid gas increased, which until then had been transported in individual tanks on the deck of general cargo ships. In November 1947, Warren Petroleum Corporation's Natalie O. Warren, one of the world's firstLNG carriers, began scheduled service betweenHouston and New York City, followed shortly thereafter by another LNG carrier converted in the United States.Øivind Lorentzen was one of the pioneers of gas shipping. He initially sold the Edvard Grieg to the Brilliant Transportation Company inPanama, which belonged to theSocony-Vacuum Oil Company.Howaldtswerken inKiel, Germany converted her into agas tanker.
After the conversion, the ship was used in trade betweenTexas and theSouth American east coast starting in from July 1952. In August 1961, the gas tanker was transferred to A/S Gasskib, which also belonged to Øivind Lorentzen, and was renamedMundogaz São Paulo. In February 1969, the ship was taken out of service and transferred to the company Mundogas (Storage Inc.), which used her as a gas tank farm inSantos, Brazil. After the machinery was removed in 1971, the ship was struck off the register in 1972.[2][3]
The conversion to a liquid gas tanker was also certified as ship class by theAmerican Bureau of Shipping andDet norske veritas. The ship was the oldest type of gas tanker that transported its cargo atambient temperature. The gases were liquefied at a pressure of around 15 bar. To withstand this pressure, the walls of the cargo tanks were 33 mm thick. They weighed up to 50 tons and gave the ship a high dead weight. The 66 upright cylindrical cargo tanks had a diameter of up to 3.83 meters and were up to 14.65 meters high. As a result, they did not fully use the volume of the ship's hull, which reduced the loading capacity compared to the existing ship's space. The Ultragaz São Paulo had 7248 m³ cargo tank volume and could transport 3804 tons of liquid gas.[4]