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SS Excambion (II)
Last updated June 2009
General Specifications
| Type | Cargo Liner, single funnel (American Export) |
| Displacement | 7,970 tons (lt) |
| Length | 473 ft, 1 in |
| Beam | 66 ft |
| Draft | 25 ft |
| Propulsion | Single Screw Steam turbine |
| Speed | 17 kt |
| Cargo Capacity | 150,000 cu. ft, 1600 tons |
| Propulsion | 2 Babcock & Wilcox steam turbines, 8,800shp, 6.473KW |
SS EXCAMBION (II), 1948, New York Harbor
In November 1947, after World War II, the USS Queens was converted to Maritime Commission hull type P1-S1-DR1. She was then purchased by American Export Lines on 22 November 1948 and renamed SS Excambion (II). She went into commercial service for American Export Lines, as one of the second-generation "4 Aces", making regular sailings from New York to Mediterranean ports. The second-generation 4 Aces -- Exochorda (II), Excambion (II), Excalibur (II), and Exeter (II) -- were nearly identical ships.
In 1958 American Export Lines discontinued the Mediterranean sailings due to competitive pressures from air transportation and due to increased political tensions in the Middle East.
On March 17 1959, Excambion (II) was returned to the Maritime Administration under a trade-in program. She was then laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Hudson River Group from 20 April 1959.
The Excambion was then was loaned to the Texas Maritime Academy on 26 April 1965, for service as a merchant marine officer training ship, and was renamed USTS Texas Clipper. She continued serving in this role for the next thirty years, until being sunk as an artificial reef on 17 November 2007.