The Beaumont Enterprise February 28, 2012

A pair of ships from Orange used in patrol for Iran

By Sarah Moore

The Iranian Navy - much in the news in recent weeks - has an unlikely tie to Orange, Texas.

It owes the might of two of its warships to a longtime shipbuilder once in business there.

In 1962, the shah asked the U.S. government for assistance under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program, created during the Cold War to help those fighting communism and the Russians, said historian Paul Mattingly, who has researched the subject in connection with a book he is writing.

President John F. Kennedy agreed to provide four "corvette" frigates to the Shah Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, considered to be "our man" and "guardian of the (Persian) Gulf."

The ships were built by the highly regarded Levingston Shipbuilding Co., an Orange-based business that dated back to the Civil War era.

Corvettes - small, fast vessels that are typically lightly armed and used for shoreline patrolling - were completed and delivered to Iran in 1964.

These weren't just any ships, said Mattingly, a Houston resident whose father worked for Levingston. These were "gold-plated" vessels on which no expense was spared, making them a gift worthy of a king - or a shah.

"Everything on the ships was built to be the best," Mattingly said, based on interviews with former Levingston shipbuilders.

Of the four corvettes, the Milanian and the Kahnamuie were lost in the Iran-Iraq war. The two remainings, named the Bayandor and the Admiral Naghdi are still active in the Iran Navy, according to GlobalSecurity.org website.

In fact, the Naghdi was mentioned in an article posted Monday on the Albawaba News website, which said the Naghdi was one of two warships deployed to the Mediterranean, purportedly on a "training mission" with the Syrian navy.

But Egyptian security sources were quoted claiming the ships were disrupting communications by Syrian opposition via jamming devices.

Mattingly said missile launchers mounted on the Naghdi's deck have some on the Internet speculating about the vessel's potential to disable an aircraft carrier, but he couldn't speak to that one way or the other.

The Bayandor has also been involved in newsworthy exploits, as part of a defensive effort to repel pirates that attacked an Iranian oil tanker off the southern coast of Yemen, Mattingly said, citing a report by the Iranian Navy.

"The corvettes were the only warships that Levingston ever built," Mattingly said in an email. "They were world leaders in naval architecture, marine engineering and dealing with oil production equipment."

Levingston was a company known for "creativity and innovation" in the design and construction of tugs, barges, ferries and a full range of offshore oil and gas drilling equipment, Mattingly said.

This is backed up by Enterprise archive stories.

"Long known for its construction of fine tugs and barges, the yard is equally proud of its reputation as the 'Oil Industry's Shipyard,' " a 1954 article on Levingston said.