By Ed Jones
One of Linnton’s many attractions is the view of the working harbor we all share. Watching tugboats work calms the mind. While watching you may have noticed a newly parked navy gray vessel over at the Toyota car lot.
Photo of the Motor Vessel NELSON V. BRITTIN. Credit – Edward Jones
That’s the Motor Vessel NELSON V. BRITTIN, a Bob Hope class roll-on/roll-off vehicle cargo ship that used to belong to the US Navy. It was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in April of 2023 and the new owners have brought it to Portland and it now sits across the river from Linnton with an uncertain future.
The ship was named after Nelson Vogel Brittin, an American combat soldier who was killed in action during the Korean War. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Yonggong-ni, Korea, on March 7, 1951. According to his Medal of Honor Citation, Sergeant Brittin killed 20 enemy soldiers and destroyed four automatic weapons before his death.