SS Ohio was an oil tanker built for The Texas Company (later Texaco). The ship was launched on 20 April 1940 at the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania. The United Kingdom requisitioned her to re-supply the island fortress of Malta during the Second World War. The tanker played a key role in Operation Pedestal, which was one of the fiercest and most heavily contested of the Malta convoys, in August 1942. Although Ohio reached Malta successfully, she was so badly damaged that she had to be effectively scuttled in order to offload her cargo, and never sailed again. The tanker is fondly remembered in Malta, where to this day she is considered the saviour of the beleaguered island. Design and building Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. built Ohio as hull 190, launching her on 20 April 1940 and completing her that June. She was a skillful compromise, promising broad cargo-carrying capacity to the merchant and speed, balance, and stability to the mariner. Above the waterline her design echoed the outward curve of a schooner's bow, bearing the influence of the old American clipper ship design. She was the lead ship of her class of eight ships, all owned by The Texas Company. The threat of a rearming Germany and a Japanese Empire bent on military expansion, and the approach of war, influenced Ohios design. Unofficial conversations between military and oil chiefs resulted in a ship of and , 515 feet length overall, and capable of carrying of fuel oil. The ship was completed in the unusually short time of seven months and 15 days. The Westinghouse steam turbine engines developed 9,000 driveshaft horsepower at 90 revolutions per minute, which gave her a speed of . Ohio was considered the fastest tanker of her era. Her method of construction was controversial. For some years, the issue of welding versus riveting had raged on both sides of the Atlantic. Ohio was welded, with hopes it would prove once and for all its reliability. The ship also had a composite framing system with two longitudinally continuous bulkheads, which divided the ship into 21 cargo tanks. The ship was launched the day after that scheduled, prompting superstitious fear in the welders, steel-cutters and other craftsmen who had assembled to watch her launch. She was christened in a ceremony presided over by the mother of William Starling Sullivant Rodgers, president of the