The combination container/ro-ro ship Lurline (seen above on its maiden arrival at Honolulu) was the fifth ship to bear the name for the Matson Navigation Company.
Built in 1973 at the Sun Shipbuilding Co. yard in Chester, Pa., the ship was built at a cost of $31 million, jointly owned by a pair of banks, and chartered to Matson under the terms of a “long-term” agreement.
The day after delivery to Matson, the new ship sailed from Philadelphia for the Port of Los Angeles, where it loaded its first cargo at the port’s Terminal Island container facility to inaugurate the first ro/ro service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland.
Plans were drawn to expand the Hawaii service by adding Oakland to the Lurline’s Hawaii route, but service between Los Angeles and Honolulu was maintained until adequate terminal facilities could be provided at Oakland and other Hawaiian ports.
The 700-foot, 24,901 GRT ship had a maximum speed of 25 knots and could carry an assortment of highway trailers and trucks equivalent to 278 40-foot trailers, including 100 refrigerated units, 207 automobiles, and 1,600 tons of molasses.
In the 1980s, after Lurline had completed 187 California-Hawaii voyages, the decision was made to convert Lurline into a combination ro-ro and lift-on/lift-off (ro-ro/ro-lo) vessel.
The $40 million conversion contract went to Sun Shipbuilding, the yard where the ship was built – to install a 127-foot mid-body section to lengthen the ship to a total of 827 feet. Cargo capacity was doubled to accommodate additional trailers and container units, refrigerated units, and vehicles with a starboard-side ramp installed and the ship’s aft deck converted into a three level, covered vehicle “garage.”
Work on the ship was completed and Lurline returned to service in 1982, Matson Navigation Company’s centennial year.
Sailing for Matson until 2015, Lurline was briefly laid-up until February 2017 when the veteran ship was sold for scrapping and towed through the Panama Canal to the breaker’s yard in Brownsville, Tx.