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Socony-Vacuum High Speed Tankers, Predecessors of the T-3 Class-Tankers
See also : National Defence Featured Tanker Corsicana
The High Speed Tankers
ln 1939 Socony-Vacuum was contemplating the construction of six additional tankers of the “M” class to replace older ships which were reaching the end of their useful life. At the same time the US government, concerned by the lack of high speed tankers which could be used by the Navy in the event of a national emergency, had inaugurated a building programme of 12 twin-screw vessels to fill the gap.
Unfortunately Socony-Vacuum could not join this programme because twin-screw vessels were unsuitable for operations in the Beaumont canal. But the company told the government that it was happy to modify the six contemplated “M” class tankers to include the features desired for national defence. These features were no small bag of nuts and bolts. Gun foundations and some armour plate here and there; magazines for ammunition; extra living space for greatly increased Navy crews - these requirements presented no great problem.
But the main requirement of 12,000 horsepower to drive the ship at a steady 16 knots - that took some doing. lt was not only triple the 4000 horsepower of the original “M” design, but it was also close to being the greatest power ever put on a single propeller shaft in the history of merchant shipbuilding. So well was it solved that the change was made not only without trespassing on cargo capacity but also without altering the location of a single bulkhead !
Thus the High Speed Tankers, as they were known, came into existence. Only two of them, CORSICANA and CADDO, were completed early enough to make any peacetime voyages for Socony-Vacuum. Events moved so rapidly that the Navy exercised its option on the use of the ships at the earliest possible moment. Three of them - CALUSA, COLlNA and CONASTOGA - were taken over on the day of their commissioning. The last of the six, CATAWBA, made one coastal trip for the company and several to New Zealand for WSA before being tagged for Navy service. And only two came back to Socony-Vacuum after the war : TASCALUSA (formerly CATAWBA) and TATARRAX (formerly CONASTOGA).
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The Socony-Vacuum High Speed Tankers :
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