Name Alatna Sponsored by Mrs. Wilma Miles In service July 1957 Launched 6 September 1956 | Laid down 15 March 1956 Acquired 17 July 1957 Construction started 15 March 1956 Length 92 m | |
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Builder Bethlehem Steel, Baltimore, Maryland | ||
USNS Alatna, was a gasoline T1 tanker specially constructed for service in polar regions, was launched on 6 September 1956 at Staten Island, New York, by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, sponsored by Mrs. Wilma Miles, and placed in service with the Military Sea Transportation Service in July 1957.
Manned by a civil service crew, Alatna carried petroleum products from ports along the Atlantic and gulf coasts and in the Caribbean Sea to scattered American outposts in both polar regions. For more than 15 years, the tanker and her crew struggled against snow, wind, and ice to support American military bases in the Arctic and American scientists in the Antarctic. On 8 August 1972, Alatna was placed out of service and laid up with the Maritime Commission's National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California.
The Alatna Valley in the Antarctic was named after this ship.