Yard number 1744 Out of service 2002 Length 353 m | In service 1977 Launched 14 August 1976 | |
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Name 1976 al-Rekkah
1987 Bridgeton
1997 Pacific Blue Owner 1976 Kuwait Oil Tanker Company
1987 Chesapeake Shipping, Inc.
before 1997 Keystone Shipping Company
1997 Kafa Navigation Corporation Port of registry 1977 Kuwait
1987 Philadelphia
1997 Panama Builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | ||
MV Bridgeton, ex-al-Rekkah, was a Kuwait Oil Company oil tanker that was reflagged during Operation Earnest Will.
Ordered and built as al-Rekkah, the ship was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in its Nagasaki shipyard and launched August 14, 1976.
In 1987, the United States agreed to Kuwaiti requests to provide naval escorts for its tankers on the condition that the civilian ships be reflagged under U.S. flag. al-Rekkah was perforce renamed Bridgeton. On July 24, 1987, Bridgeton was part of the first Earnest Will convoy when it struck an Iranian mine near Farsi Island. The explosion breached the outer hull and the forward cargo tanks, spilling oily residue. The ship sailed to Dubai Drydock Shipyard for repair. The mining prompted Operation Prime Chance, a secret effort to stop more minelaying. In September 1987, Iran Ajr was discovered laying mines, captured and scuttled by U.S. forces.
Some of the reflagged tankers returned to Kuwaiti flags in January 1989, but Bridgeton and several others remained U.S.-flagged.
In the late 1990s, Bridgeton transferred to Panamanian registry and was renamed Pacific Blue.
The supertanker was scrapped in 2002 at Haryana Ship Demolition in Alang, India.