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The SS ''Ohio'' was an oil tanker built for the Texas Oil Company, (now Texaco). The ship was launched on 20 April 1940 at the Sun Shipbuilding Yard in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was requisitioned by the Allied forces to re-supply the island fortress of Malta, during the Second World War.〔Holland, James, ''Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege, 1940–1943'' (Cassell Military 2004) ISBN 0-304-36654-4.〕 The tanker played a fundamental role in Operation ''Pedestal'', which was one of the fiercest and most heavily contested of the Malta Convoys, in August 1942.〔Spooner, Tony. ''Supreme Gallantry: Malta's Role in the Allied Victory, 1939–1945'' (London, 1996).〕 Although ''Ohio'' reached Malta successfully, she was so badly damaged that she had to be effectively scuttled in order to offload her cargo, and never sailed again. The tanker is fondly remembered in Malta, where to this day she is considered to be the saviour of the beleaguered island.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.doi.gov.mt/en/press_releases/2001/07/pr1026.asp )〕 == Construction and launch == ''Hull 190'', as the ''Ohio'' was referred-to before her launch, was a skilful compromise, promising broad cargo-carrying capacity to the merchant and speed, balance and stability to the mariner. Above the waterline, the construction echoed the outward curve of a schooner's bow, bearing the influence of the old American clipper ship design. The design of ''Hull 190'' was influenced also by the menace of a rearming Germany and a Japanese Empire bent on military expansion. The approach of war had influenced this design, the unofficial conversations between military and oil chiefs resulted in a ship of 9,264 gross register tons, 515 feet in overall length, and capable of carrying of fuel oil, bigger and with a larger capacity than any other tanker previously built. The ship was completed in the unusually short time of seven months and fifteen days.〔.〕 The Westinghouse turbine engines developed 9,000 driveshaft horsepower at ninety revolutions per minute, which allowed a maximum sixteen knots, a speed never attained before by any modern tanker of her era. Her method of construction was controversial. For some years, the issue of welding versus riveting had been raging on both sides of the Atlantic. ''Hull 190'' was built using the new-fashioned welded method, hopefully proving once and for all its reliability.〔 The ship also had a composite framing system with two longitudinally continuous bulkheads, which divided the ship into twenty-one cargo tanks. The ship was launched the day after that scheduled, prompting superstitious fear in the welders, steel-cutters and other craftsmen who had assembled to watch her launch. ''Hull 190'' was christened in a ceremony presided over by the mother of the President of the Texas Oil Company, Mrs. Florence E. Rodgers who, grasping the ceremonial bottle of champagne in her hand pronounced the words: The ship slid down No. 2 slipway, entering the waters of the Delaware River. The existence of the ''Ohio'' would, in its initial years, be uneventful and ordinary, plying between Port Arthur and various other American harbours. She set a speed record from Bayonne to Port Arthur, covering in four days and twelve hours, an average of more than seventeen knots.〔Pearson, Michael, ''THE OHIO AND MALTA'', (Pen and Sword Books) ISBN 1-84415-031-3〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS Ohio」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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