C-4 class cargo vessel American Racer history demonstrates change from bulk to containerized cargo

The American Racer is a C-4 class cargo ship built in 1963 by the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. Her length overall is 544 feet, beam is 75 feet, and draft is 27 feet. Her single-screw steam turbine, producing 18750 shaft horsepower propelled her to 21 knots. She displaced a total of 20,809 long tons.

American Racer was one of the first automation systems that allowed engine control directly from the wheelhouse. The ship’s career demonstrated how rapidly the technology of shipping changed, as by the mid 1960s containerized freight handling quickly was adopted by shippers, and by 1966 the ship’s owners modified it to carry more than 200 containers, while retaining some “break-bulk” capacity. This proved uneconomical, and 28 month later she was converted back to bulk cargo and leased to the U.S. government. United States Lines traded the ship into the government in 1983, and the ship remains in the reserve fleet at Suisun Bay, California.[1]

[1]HAER CA-346 Recording project cosponsored by the Historic American Engineering Record and the US Maritime Administration. The vessel was documented under the direction of Todd A. Croteau, HAER Maritime Program Coordinator and Barbara Voulgaris, MARAD historian. Team members included architects |Ashley T. Walker, photographer Jet Lowe, and historian Michael R. Harrison.