Tour of NS Savannah May 19, 2019
This 181.66×23.77m (596x78ft) nuclear powered cargo ship was built in 1959 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey. She was built to demonstrate the peaceful use of nuclear power and carried 14,040 tons of cargo and 60 passengers with a crew of 124. Some info from Wikipedia.
the NS Savannah is a beautiful ship and looks like the back half of a cruise ship and the front half of a cargo ship. Inside she is quite beautiful with styling that would have looked typical of the 1960s.
The Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay Ship Watchers facebook group which was present as part of National Maritime Day celebrations was given a special tour of this amazing ship. As the photos suggest I was mainly interested in the mechanical workings of the ship but that is hardly all there is to see aboard this very special ship.
The unique thing to see on board this ship was the nuclear reactor containment vessel painted in red. It was easily accessible now because a slice of the barrier had been cut out to allow for visitors. It is an impressive sight even if you don’t understand what it is, but for those that do it gives pause to know what you’re looking at.
The place my camera and I were happiest was the main machinery room which housed the steam plant. This is located aft the nuclear power plant and ahead of the control room. As a result there was a lot of interesting things in this area.
After visiting these areas we visited several other interesting areas of this ship including the sick bay before moving on to the superstructure where a propeller was on display on cargo bay doors.
By the time we visited the bridge we’d been on board about three and a half hours – longer than we expected but hardly enough to see everything as there would still have been plenty more to see. The bridge looks surprisingly ordinary given how special this ship is. I would have expected it to have more bells and whistles in similar fashion to the control room several decks below. It seems that the ship’s bridge is mostly the same for a given era whether she is powered by coal, diesel, or a nuclear reactor.
A very special thank you goes to W Frank Mathers for conducting this tour and sharing his vast stores of knowledge about this ship and all of its nooks and crannies! This ship is open on special occasions but special tours can be requested. For more information see their website. See more photos I took aboard this ship by clicking here.