''Mary R. Koch'' was a combined

ore carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

and

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...

. The ship was named after Mary Robinson Koch, wife of American industrialist Fred C. Koch. ''Mary R. Koch'' was built at the

Uljanik Uljanik was a shipbuilding company in Pula, Croatia. History Uljanik was founded in 1856, in the carefully selected bay of Pula (then known as Pola) as a shipyard of the Austro-Venetian Navy (from 1867 to 1918 Austro-Hungarian Navy). The f ...

, Brodogradiliste l Tvornica Dizel Motora shipyard in Pula in

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

, (now

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

). Her two sister ships, ''Tafala'' and ''Torne'' were delivered to the Swedish company Trafikaktiebolaget Grengesberg in 1974. A further sister ship named ''Kanchenjunga'' was built as a pure oil carrier with no ore capability. Under Greek management ''Mary R. Koch'' (callsign A8QU) was time-chartered to Exxon for three years from going into service. Subsequently she made spot voyages arranged by the oil-trading division of Koch Industries. Around 1980 Koch Shipping was created and ''Mary R. Koch'' was managed directly from Wichita, with officers and crew being supplied by an agency in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saron ...

. Due to severe corrosion problems with piping in the 'void space' double bottom the ship transferred to the bulk-ore trade in the early 1980s. The four ships of this design were built to prove the practicality of the

KaMeWa AB Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad (''trans.'' Karlstad Mechanical Works Ltd), known as Kamewa, was a Swedish manufacturing company in the city of Kristinehamn. Kamewa started as a brand name of the controllable-pitch propellers manufactured by KM ...

variable pitch propeller system in high SHP applications. Although the system did function well the high initial and subsequent maintenance costs associated with having two B&W diesel engines, together with the inferior steel used for the cargo piping, compounded by the depressed tanker market at the time, meant that they were never viable economically.

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External links

Gulf Patrol 1981
– ''Mary R. Koch'' en route to Juaymah being overtaken by during the Operation Armilla {{Koch family Koch family 1974 ships Oil tankers Bulk carriers Ships built in Yugoslavia