> The Independence rings a bell (no pun),
> however.
> It looks like a cruise ship we refitted at
> Newport News Shipbuilding a few years ago,
> and the the owner would'nt pay for the
> repairs. I understand some sort of lien was
> placed against it, until payments were made.
> What I recall most about the ship was the
> goofy paint job on the funnels. Talk about
> ugly...
It is the same; after the outfitting she was used on cruises around the Hawaiian islands until the host company (who also operates the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen riverboats on the Mississippi) went belly-up last year.
Her sister ship, the S.S. Constitution, was to undergo a similiar refitting, but after the trouble with your yard, she was instead sent to Portland, WA; where she was eventually stripped of parts for her sister. She then sank on her way to a scrapper in the Far East in the year 2000.
Hummm, perhaps she is a refuge from the James River fleet? On her way to being scrapped, or sunk as an artifical reef perhaps? She kinda sounds like the former training ship PATRIOT STATE, which was at the MA Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay, MA before being replaced by a newer steamship. She has a black funnel, and cargo cranes for the front hold.
-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a
Surviving World Steam Project
james1@pernet.net
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