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USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10)

- Military Sealift Command -


Photo by Thoralf Doehring.

USNS CHARLES DREW is the tenth LEWIS AND CLARK - class Dry Cargo / Ammunition Ship and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name.

General Characteristics:Awarded: January 31, 2008
Keel laid: March 17, 2009
Launched: February 27, 2010
Delivered: July 14, 2010
Builder: National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego, Calif.
Propulsion system: Integrated propulsion and ship service electrical system, with generation at 6.6KV by FM/MAN B&W diesel generators
Propellers: one
Length: 689 feet (210 meters)
Beam: 106 feet (32.31 meters)
Draft: 29.5 feet (9 meters)
Displacement: approx. 41,000 tons full load
Speed: 20 knots
Dry Cargo Capacity: 1,388,000 cubic feet
Fuel Cargo Capacity: 26,000 barrels
Aircraft: two helicopters
Armament: none
Crew: approx. 125 civilians and up to 49 US Navy
Homeport: Pacific


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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS CHARLES DREW. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.


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About the Ship's Name:

USNS CHARLES DREW honors Dr. Charles R. Drew (1904-1950), a physician and medical researcher whose pioneering work in the late 1930s and early 1940s led to the discovery that blood could be separated into plasma. The model for blood and plasma storage developed by Drew has saved untold lives and is the same process used today by the Red Cross. In 1943, he became the first African-American surgeon to serve as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery.


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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the CHARLES DREW at the Vigor Shipyard at Seattle, Wash., on August 1, 2019.



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