PMN1
27th June 2010, 15:21
US Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman
Page 624
Within a few weeks however, the Navy had pointed out that the Seatrain could not survive a single torpedo hit, and that even a minor calibre shell hitting at the waterline might sink one. The Army therefore shifted to the Maritime Commission C4 design, conceived for the American-Hawaiian Line, but intended to be adaptable to troop transport duty. Because, like the Seatrain, a C4’s engines were aft, it offered large uninterrupted cargo spaces amidships, and the contract was rewritten for 50 C4’s in August 1942. It called for C4-S-B1 tank carriers, with special tank ramps, in effect they would have been Ro-Ro’s. Only one ship was finished to this design, because in September 1943 the Joint Chiefs ordered the ships to be completed as point-to-point troop troopships (C4-S-B2) to support the planned invasion of Europe.
The single ship became the Private Leonard C Bronstram and it was later converted to a heavy lift ship but does anyone know what the internal layout was and if it had side ramps – the pictures I’ve seen don’t seem to show any, just derricks.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/13/130255.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Private_Leonard_C._Brostrom_%28T-AK-255%29
Also does anyone know what the internal layout of the Vehicle Cargo Ship Comet was?
Page 624
Within a few weeks however, the Navy had pointed out that the Seatrain could not survive a single torpedo hit, and that even a minor calibre shell hitting at the waterline might sink one. The Army therefore shifted to the Maritime Commission C4 design, conceived for the American-Hawaiian Line, but intended to be adaptable to troop transport duty. Because, like the Seatrain, a C4’s engines were aft, it offered large uninterrupted cargo spaces amidships, and the contract was rewritten for 50 C4’s in August 1942. It called for C4-S-B1 tank carriers, with special tank ramps, in effect they would have been Ro-Ro’s. Only one ship was finished to this design, because in September 1943 the Joint Chiefs ordered the ships to be completed as point-to-point troop troopships (C4-S-B2) to support the planned invasion of Europe.
The single ship became the Private Leonard C Bronstram and it was later converted to a heavy lift ship but does anyone know what the internal layout was and if it had side ramps – the pictures I’ve seen don’t seem to show any, just derricks.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/13/130255.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Private_Leonard_C._Brostrom_%28T-AK-255%29
Also does anyone know what the internal layout of the Vehicle Cargo Ship Comet was?