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USNS Watkins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History
United States
Ordered23 May 1997
BuilderNational Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Laid down24 August 1999
Launched28 July 2000
In service2 March 2001
Identification
Statusin service
General characteristics
Class and typeWatson-class vehicle cargo ship
Displacement29,000 tons
Length950 ft
Beam106 ft
Draft34 ft
PropulsionGas turbine

USNS Watkins (T-AKR-315) is one of Military Sealift Command's nineteen Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off Ships and is part of the 33 ships in the Prepositioning Program. She is a Watson-class vehicle cargo ship.

She was named for Master Sergeant Travis E. Watkins, a Medal of Honor recipient.

Laid down on 24 August 1999 and launched on 28 July 2000, Watkins was put into service in the Pacific Ocean on 2 March 2001.

According to The Guardian the human rights group Reprieve identified the Watkins and sixteen other USN vessels as having held "ghost prisoners" in clandestine extrajudicial detention.[1]

References

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  1. ^ Duncan Campbell, Richard Norton-Taylor (2 June 2008). "Prison ships, torture claims, and missing detainees". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-06-01. mirror
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