Private Leonard C. Brostrom
(AK-255: dp. 22,094 (f.); l. 520-; b. 72-; dr. 33-; s. 17 k.; cpl. 51; cl. Private Leonard C. Brostrom; T. C4-S-B1)
An Army name retained.
Private Leonard C. Brostrom (AK-255) was laid down as Marine Eagle (MC hull 735) by the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Chester, Pa., under Maritime Commission contract, 5 December 1942; launched 10 May 1943; sponsored by Mrs. R. M. Stevenson; and delivered to the Maritime Commission, thence to the American-Hawaiian S.S. Co. for operation 18 September 1943.
Marine Eagle, the only C4 completed as originally intended, as a tank carrier, operated between New York and European ports until July 1945. During those 18 months she completed nine eastbound Atlantic crossings to the United Kingdom and, after the Normandy invasion, French and Belgian ports. Departing Antwerp, 10 July 1945, she sailed to Panama, instead of New York, then headed out across the Pacific. For the next nine months she carried cargo to the Philippines, then, in March 1946, returned to the west coast. In May, she steamed to Portland, Ore., for inactivation overhaul, after which she was laid up at Olympia, 29 October. Reactivated 27 March 1948, she was transferred to the Army Transportation Service and renamed Private Leonard C. Brostrom. After two years service, however, she was returned, 3 March 1950, to the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Olympia.
Private Leonard C. Brostrom was reactivated again, 9 August, transferred to Navy custody and designated T-AK-255. Originally assigned to MSTS, Atlantic, she was converted for heavy lift in 1953-54 by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Brooklyn, N.Y. Transferred to the Pacific after conversion, the AK sailed to the Far East to begin cargo operations under Com-MSTSFE. Continuing heavy lift operations under that command into 1970, her cargos have included a turbo-electric power plant (101 t.), diesel-electric locomotives (85 t. ea.), a turbine-generator car (116 t.) and IMODCO tanker mooring buoy (110 t.), taken from Yokohama to Taiwan.
