Mercury (T-AKR 10) Class: Photographs
| These photographs were selected to show the original configuration of this class and major subsequent modifications. For more views see the former NHHC (now Hyperwar) Online Library of Selected Images and the NavSource Photo Archive. |
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SS Maine Fitting out at the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, with the red seahorse of the States Steamship Co. on her stack. She was the first ship of a class of four that also included the future USNS Mercury and Jupiter. All four were still in the MARAD Ready Reserve Force in 2023. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USNS Illinois (T-AKR 10) Photographed in the spring of 1980 with "U.S. Naval Ship Illinois" on the bow just before she was renamed USNS Mercury. Photo No. NH 91613 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command |
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USNS Mercury (T-AKR 10) Loading at Wilmington, N.C., on 1 July 1980 before departure for the Indian Ocean as part of the new stand-by Near-Term Prepositioned Force (NTPF). The seven ships initially in this force carried equipment, supplies, fuel, and water to support a U.S. Marine Amphibious Brigade of approximately 12,000 men and several U.S. Air Force squadrons. Photo No. USN 1178579 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USNS Mercury (T-AKR 10) Loading at Wilmington, N.C., on 1 July 1980 before departure for the Indian Ocean as part of the new stand-by Near-Term Prepositioned Force (NTPF). An LVTP-7 amphibious assault vehicle is ascending her stern ramp, which is configured to load from a pier to starboard instead of the pier head astern. Photo No. USN 1178571 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USNS Mercury (T-AKR 10) Off Diego Garcia in August 1980 with USNS Jupiter (T-AKR 11) and a Near-Term Prepositioned Force (NTPF) tanker, probably the chartered Zapata Patriot serving as a water tanker, in the background. Mercury has her stern ramp partially extended. The initial NTPF also included the chartered C4 breakbulk cargo ships American Champion and American Courier and the POL tanker USNS Sealift Pacific (T-AO 168), relieved around the end of 1980 by USNS Sealift Atlantic (T-AO 172). Photo No. USN 1179022 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (L-file) |
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USNS Mercury (T-AKR 10) With USNS Jupiter (T-AKR 11) to starboard and Meteor (T-AKR 9) to port, probably moored off Diego Garcia in the early 1980s as the core of the Near-Term Prepositioned Force (NTPF). Photo No. Unknown Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USNS Jupiter (T-AKR 11) Off Diego Garcia on 3 September 1981 with the ro-ro Lyra of the Lykes Lines alongside. The foreign-built Lyra and her sister Cygnus were chartered from Lykes by MSC during 1981 with Lyra assigned to the Near-Term Prepositioned Force (NTPF). Photo No. Unknown Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USNS Jupiter (T-AKR 11) A MSC photo of the ship underway, possibly in 1985. Photo No. Unknown Source: Shipscribe |
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USNS Mercury (T-AKR 10) Vehicles and other equipment being offloaded on 1 March 1987 at Pohang, South Korea, during Exercise TEAM SPIRIT '87. Photo No. DN-SN-88-00927 Source: U.S. National Archives (RG-330) |
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SS Cape Island (AKR 10) SS Cape Island (ex Mercury, AKR-10) moored with SS Cape Intrepid (ex Jupiter, AKR-11) in their layberths at Commencement Bay, Tacoma, Wash., in August 2013. Note that, in the RRF, MARAD colors have replaced the MSC colors on the stacks. Photo by Tom Langford. Photo No. None Source: NavSource |
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