The S/S John B. Waterman is a 23,500-dwt combination container and ro/ro ship that was built for Waterman Steamship Corp. by Sun Ship, Inc., of Chester, Pa. She is the first of two building for the owner.

The ship is intended to transport cargo along the North European trade route from Gulf and East Coast ports of the U.S. The 692-foot combination carrier can transport trailers and other wheeled vehicles, containers, and unitized or palletized cargo. The ship has the capacity of 762 forty-foot containers.

The forward section is designed for containerized freight and the main deck and hatch covers are capable of ro/ro operations. The aft part is 100 percent roll-on/roll-off. For ease in loading and unloading, the Waterman is equipped with a full slewing ramp on the stern, a self-sustaining container crane, side cargo ports, and a cargo elevator in the ro/ro holds.

The Waterman has a beam of 105.5 feet, a molded depth of 68 feet, and a draft of 33 feet. The ship is powered by a General Electric cross compound axial flow turbine engine that drives a 22-foot-diameter, six-blade propeller 110 rpm at 32,000 shp through a double reduction gear. The vessel's design service speed is 20.9 knots.

There are two Combustion Engineering top fired single case welded wall boilers with a maximum heated steam flow of 102,751 lb/hr for each boiler. The operating steam conditions are 872 PSIG, at 955 degrees F.

S/S JOHN B. WATERMAN

Main propulsion ... General Electric Gears ... General Electric Propellers ... Bethlehem Steel Shaft ... Bethlehem Steel Bearings ... Waukesha Generators ... DeLaval Generator Engines ... Alco Power Panels ... Penn Panel Main Boilers ... Combustion Engineering Engine Controls ... Bailey Main Condenser ... Transamerica DeLaval Steering ... Sperry Marine Steering Gear ... Propulsion Systems (Frydenbo) Pumps ... Worthington, FMC, Warren Fire Fighting ... H.S. Hiller Air Compressors ... Ingersoll Rand Distilling Plant ... Aqua Chem Bow Thruster ... Bird-Johnson Radar ... ITT Mackay Marine CAS ... Iotron Corp. SCS ... Comsat General RDF/Radios/Position Location ... ITT Mackay Marine Crane (Container) ... Morgan Engineering Winches/Windlass ... SMATCO Ramp, Cargo Doors, Elevator ... MacGregor-Comarain Cathodic Protection ... Wilson Walton Int'l