SS Monterey Source: http://www.usmm.org/finalport.html c/aaa/history/ww2/dad/ss monterey/ss monterey.txt Final port: the scrap heap An ocean liner that carried Marines, missionaries and millionaires has a date with a breakers yard by Steve Huettel, St. Petersburg Times, July 1, 2000 TAMPA -- Over a 69-year life, the venerable SS Monterey carried hundreds of thousands of passengers -- refugees and retirees, soldiers and socialites -- millions of miles around the globe. But on Monday, the world's oldest major ocean liner is scheduled to begin its final journey as a powerful tug pushes it from Tampa's port to a beach in the Indian subcontinent, where workers will slice it into scrap metal. Various potential buyers have expressed interest since the Monterey laid up in Tampa five years ago. San Francisco developers insist they're still scrambling for cash to buy the ship and turn it into a floating hotel and museum near Fisherman's Wharf. But a hot international scrap market makes the vessel worth more than $3.5-million at ship-breaking yards in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, said John Rapuano, whose Houston-based firm is managing the ship's sale for owner Belofin A.G. Corp. of Liechtenstein. Belofin won't keep paying $50,000 a month to keep the Monterey in Tampa while suitors try to save the ship, he said. "It would certainly be a tragedy for her to end up in the breakers (yard)," Rapuano said Friday. "But we can't have the ship sit around with these kinds of carrying costs in port every day." Peter Knego, editor of a Web site devoted to old ocean liners, said the Monterey and other Matson Line ships were as important to California history as the trans-Atlantic Cunard ships like the Queen Mary were to New York. "It's like a friend is going to the executioner's block," said Knego, who photographed the Monterey and other aging liners for site www.maritimematters.com. "People don't make an effort to save (historic ships), and then they're gone. The modern ships are like cookie cutters. We have the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, but we don't have their sea-going equivalents." Built in 1931 by Bethlehem Steel at Quincy, Mass., the Monterey began sailing 50-day voyages the following year from San Francisco on a South Pacific route that included stops in Honolulu, Pago Pago, New Zealand and Australia. SS Monterey in Sydney harbor Ships of the U.S. Merchant Marine, S. Kip Farrington Jr., New York: E. P. Dutton Inc. 1947 Rockefellers and movie stars like Clark Gable toured exotic locations from the decks, according to a Matson history. The U.S. Marine Corps chartered the Monterey in 1941 to rescue stranded American missionaries and citizens from Japan, Korea and China. The Navy then used the ship to ferry Marines and Army soldiers across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. While steaming through the Mediterranean Sea near Italy, the Monterey's 23-ship convoy came under attack by Nazi dive bombers on Nov. 6, 1943. One plane, hit by gunners on the ship, clipped off the radio antenna and crashed into the sea. The crew hauled aboard 1,675 Canadians after their troop carrier, the Santa Elena, was hit by a bomb and began sinking. The Monterey went out of service after the war but returned in 1957 rechristened as the Matsonsia. The Hawaiian-theme vessel could take up to 761 first-class passengers on a circle route from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and back. But the ocean liner trade went south in the 1960s as wide-body jets became the mode of transportation for tourists crossing the oceans. The former Monterey was sold to the Greek Chandris line, refit for 1,655 passengers and put on a route carrying emigrants between England and Australia. The renamed SS Britanis was later based in Miami for bargain Caribbean cruises for middle-income South Floridians. In late 1994, the U.S. Navy chartered the ship for a new military mission: a floating hotel for 1,200 personnel processing Haitian and Cuban refugees at Guantanamo Bay. Chandris brought the ship to Tampa in 1995 and put her up for sale. Belofin bought the ship, renamed it the Belofin-1 and planned to sail it to the scrap yards under her own power, said Rapuano. But crews could get only half of the 12 boilers working, too few to safely make the 10,000-mile trip across treacherous seas. Meanwhile, the market for scrap metal and the Asian economies tanked. Last summer, the San Francisco group started paying the Monterey's $50,000 monthly bills at the port for the option to buy the ship. They want to turn the ship into a hotel and museum like the Queen Mary in Southern California, said Ken Grigsby of Oceanic Steamship Co., promoter of the project. Buying the vessel would be a small slice of the project's $50-million cost, he said. The teak decks and much of the interior would be torn out. Asbestos would be removed, he said, andsprinkler systems and other modern safety measures would go in. "The whole ship would be stripped and sandblasted down to the bare metal," Grigsby said. Developers persuaded Port of San Francisco officials to grant them exclusive negotiating rights for a pier near Fisherman's Wharf. But the group stopped paying to maintain its option on the ship in March, although members are still talking to the owners and trying to raise cash to buy the vessel, Grigsby said. Once the Monterey begins the journey, Rapuano said, any potential buyers will have 30 to 45 days to close a deal and turn the ship around. Copyright St. Petersburg Times 2000. Reprinted with permission of St. Petersburg Times. ============================================================================