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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive
Patch at left contributed by Don McGrogan, BMCS, USN Ret. - Popular Patch, patch at left by Mike Smolinski

USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285)


International Radio Call Sign:
November - Golf - Yankee - Victor
 NGYV
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

National Defense Service Medal
Northern Light Class Breakbulk Cargo Ship:
  • Laid down, 1 February 1961, as SS Mormactrade, a Maritime Administration type (C3-S-33a) hull, under Maritime Administration contract (MA hull 98), at Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Chester, PA.
  • Launched, 1 January 1962
  • Delivered to Moore-McCormack Lines, 12 April 1962
  • Returned to the Maritime Administration for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, 15 February 1980
  • Acquired by the US Navy, 20 April 1980 and placed in service with the Military Sealift Command (MSC) as USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285)
  • Placed out of service and laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Fort Eustis, VA., in RRF-30 status (MSC Ready Reserve available in 30 days)
  • Title transferred to MARAD, 1 October 1994, and released from RRF status
  • Sold for scrapping, 24 August 2007, to North American Ship Recycling, Sparrows Point, MD., as part of a five ship contract for $2,161,610.
  • Final Disposition, scrapping contract re-awarded to ESCO Marine, Brownsville, TX., for $617,699, 21 December 2007, after North American Ship Recycling defaulted on original contract
    Specifications:
    Displacement 5,873 t.(lt) 18,410 t.(fl)
    Length 486'
    Beam 68'
    Draft 31' (max.)
    Speed 16.2 kts.
    Propulsion two boilers, single steam turbine engine, one propeller
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		Size Image Description Source
    Merchant Service Moore McCormack Lines
    Southern Cross 270k Moore-McCormack Lines SS Mormactrade moored pierside, circa 1963, location unknown. Gerhard Mueller-Debus
    Southern Cross
    0913028507    		 63k Moore-McCormack Lines cargo ship SS Mormactrade underway, date and location unknown.
    SS Mormactrade | Ships Nostalgia    		 Robert Hurst
    USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285)
    Southern Cross 222k USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285) under way, date and location unknown. Chris Howell
    Southern Cross 86k USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285) under way, circa 1960-81, location unknown.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 92966. Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1981    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Southern Cross 124k USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285) moored pierside probably in Antarctic, circa 1981.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 92965. Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1981    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Southern Cross
    0913028506    		 165k USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285) conducting cargo operations at the ice pier at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, in February 1983 while making an unprecedented two supply runs in one season from Port Lyttelton, New Zealand. Workers made a new ice pier every 3-5 years by repeatedly flooding an area with water which quickly froze and reinforcing it with steel cables. However, by 1983 this pier had been in use for four seasons and during the ship's second visit a cargo truck like the one shown here broke through the ice.
    Wikimedia Commons, from "Race to Reach McMurdo Station", The Press, 23 March 1983; Christchurch, New Zealand. Photo by Randy C. Bunney.    		 Robert Hurst
    Sylvania
    09520247    		 358k USS Sylvania (AFS-2) conducts an underway replenishment with USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285) during the 1991 Gulf War.
    U.S. Navy All Hands magazine April 1991, p. 33    		 Robert Hurst
    Southern Cross
    0913028505    		 279k USNS Southern Cross (T-AK-285) moored pierside, date and location unknown.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # unknown.    		 Robert Hurst
    There is no DANFS history for Southern Cross (T-AK-285) available at NavSource
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 15 August 2025