Sun Ship Hull Sheet
Sun Ship Hull No:674
Original Name: Westward Venture
Hull Data
Owner: Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Inc.
Launching Date:     1976.03.30
Delivered:     1977.05.17
LOA-B-D:    790'9" - 92'0" - 60'15-5/8"   
D.W.T:   16,875 (Displacement-31,672)   
Type:    RO/RO (Trailership) 
HP: 30,000 SHP
Boilers: Two B&W, Specific Fuel Rate: .491 lbs./shp-hr
Propulsion:GE Cross Compoound Steam Turbine
Propeller:    21' Diameter, 5 Blades 
Speed/Knots:   24
Renames:   'Westward Venture' (Launched), 'Atlantic Bear' (Delivered) 76-84, 'Atlantic Spirit' 84-89, 'Kaimoku' 89-98,
'El Yunque' 98-2016.
Disposition:      Scrapping  c: 2016.12
The S.S. 'Westward Venture' is the second large, fast trailership Sun Ship has built for the Alaska trade. Following delivery, Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Inc. (TOTE) will offer the services of the 791-ft. trailership in the Seattle to Anchorage run.
The 'Westward Venture' is a flexible, "Pure Roll-on/roll-off" vessel capable of carrying assorted highway trailers, automobiles and other wheeled or tracked vehicles. The vehicles are driven on and off the vessel over shoreside ramps. A system of internal ramps and an elevator provide access to all holds. The 'Westward Venture' will have the capability of carrying the equivalent of 386 40-ft. trailers and 126 autos.
The propulsion plant will be a modern steam type with geared turbine drive, producing 30,000 shp on a single screw. Centralized control will allow regulation of the speed and direction of the propeller from the bridge.
(From : Original launching invitation, Courtesy SSHS)
'Atlantic Bear':
At Sun Ship prior  to delivery.
Photo from the A. Cooley Collection C: 1976.03
#1404.001c
S.S. 'Atlantic Spirit' - Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Authority, San Juan, P.R., Maiden arrival under new name, 1985.08
#453.47.037. (Courtesy of Tow Line Magaizine-1985 No.2. P13)
'El Yunque at port in Philadelphia at Tioga Marine Terminal
# 445.02.001 (Courtesy of John Curdy)
Picture showing'El Yunque'  transiting the Panama Canal on her way to Brownsville, TX for scrapping.
#500.674.004a:  c: 2016.12 (Courtesy Dave Boone)
In Remberance of Our 'El Faro' H-674 and her 40 years of honorable service:
“The launching of a ship, be she a twelve-foot dinghy, ocean-going liner or great battleship, is a solemn occasion.
At this moment the future looms nearer, unseen but not unfelt; and pride of workmanship becomes humbled before the immensity of the challenge to mighty elements and a fate beyond man’s control.
Man-the-Builder has toiled for days, months or even years to shape this new and shining tool. Now it is to be committed to the sea, to a hidden destiny; and Man-the-Seafarer must put forth in her to test the mystery of oceans and to give her the life for which she has been cunningly made.
No one can tell if that life will be short or long, a maiden voyage wreck or years of tramping the seas to an honorable discharge in the shipbreakers yard."
Note: These words were borrowed from Peter Shankland and Anthony Hunter's  fabulous
book 'Malta Convoy', published in 1961, which, in part, describes the critical role our tanker 'Ohio'
played in the success of that convoy in World War II. Please see our page on  S.S. 'Ohio' Hull 190
in our Ships-of-Sun Ship series.