USNS Henry Gibbins (T-AP-183) - Navy Service

Navy Service

Henry Gibbins was acquired by the U.S. Navy from the U.S. Army on 1 March 1950, and assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service. During the Korean War she transported men and equipment from New York to the Caribbean and Canal Zone ports, prior to their assignment in the Pacific. In 1953, Henry Gibbins operated on the New York to Bremerhaven, Germany, and Southampton, England, runs, making a total of 12 cruises to these European ports.

From 1954 until late 1959 the veteran transport steamed from New York to the Caribbean over 75 times, sailed to the Mediterranean on 3 occasions and crossed the Atlantic to Northern Europe 8 times. During this time Henry Gibbins shuttled thousands of troops and tons of supplies between the United States and her foreign bases.

Henry Gibbins was transferred from MSTS to the United States Maritime Administration 2 December 1959, at Fort Schuyler, New York, for service with the New York Maritime College. The college named her TS Empire State IV and she retained that name until being transferred to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1973. At that time she was renamed USTS Bay State.

During the winter of 1976-77, one of the coldest in fifty years, the Bay State suffered serious ice damage to her hull at her berth in Buzzards Bay at the southern end of the Cape Cod Canal. The hull plates were repaired and the ship continued to serve as a training vessel for two more years. In the summer of 1977 she carried cadets to Europe. In the summer of 1978 she made a training cruise to the Mediterranean.

The vessel was returned to the Maritime Administration after her final training cruise in 1978. Between the hull damage she had sustained in 1977, her age, and an increase in Massachusetts Maritime Academy's enrollment, she no longer suited the Academy's requirements.

According to the U.S. Maritime Administration, the ship was scrapped in 1983 after suffering an engine room fire.