Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Mystery Ship

The Marjata
I was driving along the York River on the Colonial Parkway between Yorktown and Jamestown a couple of weeks ago and spotted this ship at the Cheatam Annex facility (a supply facility of the U.S. Navy).  I started wondering which ship this was as it is quite big for this river.  Driving a mile or two farther on the Parkway, I saw a fisherman wading through the edge of the river carrying a net so I thought I would stop and take some photographs. Beyond the fisherman was the ship and, still wondering which ship it was, I thought I would take a photograph to later identify it and learn something about it. 

 Looking at the image at 100%, the name of the ship is the Marjata.  When "Googling" Marjata, the only ship that I come up with a Norwegian Armed Forces vessel, which is speculated most likely to be an intelligence gathering ship.  But, it doesn't look like this vessel.  It appears to be much smaller as well as with a different configuration.  I didn't find any other ship named the Marjata, so I'm not sure what ship this is.  Any ideas?

 I would assume, from all the radar domes on this ship, that it too may be some sort of intelligence gathering vessel.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

  Dennis Mook 

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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 7, 2015 at 9:46 AM

    Hi Dennis,

    don't know if you continued your research on the ship and if you are interested, but if you are:
    It is in fact the successor to the vessel your googling came up with. Built in Romania, its present position and condition (compared to earlier photos) allows assuming that it may be being equipped with specialist American components, or for crew member training, or for syncing with US intelligence authorities, and the like.
    BTW I came across your blog due to my interest in photography, and was especially intruiged to find out that your hunting grounds include Virginia Beach - where I lived from '62 to '66. Gives me a bit of wistfulness. Oh, and I like your pictures too.

    Regards
    erka

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    Replies
    1. The Wandering LensmanAugust 7, 2015 at 11:43 AM

      Erka, thank you for the information. I still wondered which ship it really was. Thank you for the kind words on my photographs. You wouldn't recognize Virginia Beach. Now the largest city in Virginia with almost 450,000 residents, you can imagine being a tourist city that the traffic and build-up of residential areas, shopping and business areas has been tremendous. I don't drive over there during the summer due to traffic. What used to be a small town right on the ocean, now encompasses the entire former Princess Anne County. Dennis

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    2. AlfredOctober 17, 2015 at 8:53 PM

      As Anonymous said, it is a replacement for older Norwegian ships bearing that name. See:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjata

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