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MV Cape Knox (T-AKR 5082)

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MV Cape Knox at Bremerhaven, Germany, on June 9, 2023. Photo by Thoralf Doehring.

MV CAPE KNOX was originally built as MV NEDLLOYD ROUEN in 1978. Later renamed ROUEN, she was acquired by the Maritime Administration in 1995. Subsequently converted for MARAD's Ready Reserve Fleet service at Bender Shipbuilding and Repair, Mobile, Ala., the ship is presently homeported in New Orleans, La., capable of being fully activated within 5 days.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard MV CAPE KNOX. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

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MV CAPE KNOX History:

MV CAPE KNOX began life in 1978, built in Japan by Nippon Kokan (NKK) for the Dutch liner company Nedlloyd. Delivered as NEDLLOYD ROUEN under the Netherlands flag, she worked commercial roll-on/roll-off service through the 1980s and early 1990s on long-haul routes. A documented port call shows her arriving at Timaru, New Zealand on January 6, 1994, a typical South Pacific touch for Nedlloyd's global network at the time.

As the United States expanded surge sealift capacity after the Cold War, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) bought the ship and folded her into the Ready Reserve Force (RRF). CAPE KNOX officially entered the federal fleet on August 18, 1995, and over the following fiscal year she received upgrades to meet RRF readiness and configuration standards before being introduced to the New Orleans maritime community in 1996, alongside her near-twin MV CAPE KENNEDY (T-AKR 5083). From the outset she was maintained in a five-day readiness category - kept pier-side with a caretaker crew, power, and systems available for rapid activation under Military Sealift Command (MSC) control when required.

Exercise and inspection cycles in the late 1990s reflected the emphasis on fast surge lift. In fiscal year 1999, CAPE KNOX was one of five roll-on/roll-offs activated during Turbo Activation 99-4 to prove crews, systems and sailing readiness under no-notice conditions. That same year, in August 1999, CAPE KNOX was again called up for the large sealift stress test "Turbo Intermodal Surge 00 (TIS-00)", which rehearsed moving Army and joint cargo rapidly through U.S. ports and onward on short timelines. These events came amid NATO post-Bosnia stabilization and growing expeditionary logistics demands that drove regular RRF proving runs.

CAPE KNOX's most visible public role came after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. Berthed at the Poland Avenue Wharf/U.S. Army Supply Base on the Mississippi, the ship and her waterfront complex became part of the New Orleans recovery scaffolding. MARAD's recap and contemporaneous mariners' reporting describe how the RRF presence at Poland Avenue provided afloat work space, power, and staging for responders, while CAPE KENNEDY hosted port operations as the city struggled with power, communications, and access. CAPE KNOX remained crewed and ready to support upriver runs with supplies as the region reopened. The episode illustrated how RRF vessels, although built for war-reserve sealift, are routinely adapted to domestic emergency logistics.

Routine years in reduced operating status followed, punctuated by inspections, crew musters and training evolutions in and around New Orleans. On August 7, 2018, Maritime Administrator Mark "Buzz" Buzby visited both CAPE KNOX and CAPE KENNEDY at the Poland Street/Poland Avenue wharf, meeting crews and reviewing readiness. Later that autumn, MARAD ordered a simultaneous no-notice "turbo activation" of multiple Keystone-managed RRF ships to exercise crewing and material pipelines - part of recurring tests that keep the RRF credible as a five-day surge asset.

In the pandemic era the ship featured in another high-tempo readiness event. As U.S. Transportation Command and MARAD ran the nationwide "Breakout 2020" sealift mobilization drill, the Seafarers International Union recorded CAPE KNOX among the first wave of RRF activations in late July 2020, with follow-on waves through August that together brought dozens of surge ships and hundreds of mariners to full operating status on short notice. The exercise stress-tested the human and industrial mobilization piece of strategic sealift under COVID-era constraints and confirmed the Gulf and Atlantic outports' ability to crew and sail on demand.

Through the mid-2020s, CAPE KNOX continued to sit at her long-time layberth in New Orleans - paired with CAPE KENNEDY - designated Berth B-3 at the Poland Avenue facility and maintained in five-day readiness. In June 2025, she was again mobilized on no-notice for a turbo activation, with labor accounts highlighting the rapid crew-up and transition from reduced to full operating status. Later that summer, on July 28, 2025, MARAD announced a ten-year allocation of RRF ship-management contracts that reassigned CAPE KNOX (and CAPE KENNEDY) from Keystone Shipping to Pacific-Gulf Marine, effective August 18, 2025 - a change of operating company rather than mission, reflecting periodic recompetes of RRF support contracts.

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MV CAPE KNOX Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Florian F. and shows the MV CAPE KNOX moored outboard her sistership MV CAPE KENNEDY (T-AKR 5083) at New Orleans, La., on February 8, 2023.

The photos below were taken by me and show the MV CAPE KNOX passing Bremerhaven, Germany, on her way to nearby Nordenham on June 9, 2023.

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