The Maritime Administration and Waterman Steamship Corporation have reached agreement on a trade-in/trade-out deal involving trading in two ferryboats for two troopships for upgrading.
The conversion work will be done at Portland, Ore., by Albina Engine & Machine Works at a cost for each of the two ships of between two and three million dollars. The troopers will be converted to dry cargo vessels with a capability of handling 116 20-foot containers on deck.
To be traded in are the ferryboats, Binghampton and Elmira, both built by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in 1905.
The ships that Waterman will acquire are the General Leroy Eltinge and General R. M. Blatchford, both located at the Suisun Bay reserve fleet.
The General Leroy Eltinge and General R. M. Blatchford have unadjusted fair and reasonable values of $518,000 each; the Binghampton and the Elmira have unadjusted fair and reasonable values of $6,800 and $6,700, respectively.
Waterman is to pay the difference in the values of the traded out ships and those traded in — $1,022,550, less cash deposits of $50,000 per ship. The two troopers were built by Kaiser Company in Richmond, Calif., and delivered in 1945.