USNS Watkins

History
United States
Ordered	23 May 1997
Builder	National Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Laid down	24 August 1999
Launched	28 July 2000
In service	2 March 2001
Identification	IMO number: 9232230; MMSI number: 338815000; Callsign: NIJB;
Status	in service
General characteristics
Class and type	Watson-class vehicle cargo ship
Displacement	29,000 tons
Length	950 ft
Beam	106 ft
Draft	34 ft
Propulsion	Gas 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

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.