That’s too bad, and I was actually hoping that they could make this fly. This could be a matter of just timing, because I do think an escort ship is the way to go for the really sensitive shipping like weapons or natural gas. Xe should also try to sell it through Aprodex or something like that. –Matt
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Xe pulls plug on its counterpiracy venture; ship up for sale
January 5, 2010
Apparently unsuccessful in marketing it for anti-piracy operations, Xe has put its 183-foot ship McArthur up for sale.
In an online advertisement on the Web site Yachtworld.com, the McArthur is listed at a reduced price of $3.7 million. The vessel is docked in Alicante, Spain.
Xe, the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company formerly known as Blackwater, acquired and refurbished the 40-year-old ship three years ago and declared itself ready to begin patrolling the Gulf of Aden to protect merchant vessels against pirates.
In an interview with The Virginian-Pilot in 2008, Bill Mathews, then Blackwater’s executive vice president, placed the value of the overhauled vessel at $15 million.
Based in Norfolk, the McArthur was built in 1966 by Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., now BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair. For most of its life, it was used as a research vessel by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It contains a helicopter pad and two-bed hospital.
The impending sale was first reported Monday on the blog of the U. S. Naval Institute, a nonprofit forum on global security issues. Xe had no immediate comment on the report.