page_title: USS LST-510
section_title: Decommissioning and sale
hierarchical_section_title: USS LST-510 / Service history / Decommissioning and sale
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photo of the service bar on USS-LST-510, Buncombe County, by Mark Ameres, http://ameres.net
context_page_description: USS Buncombe County was an LST-491-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for Buncombe County, North Carolina, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. She currently serves as a ferry between New London, Connecticut, and Orient, Long Island.
context_section_description: Inactive for over a decade, she was named USS Buncombe County (LST-510) on 1 July 1955. Deemed "unfit for further Naval service" on 27 October 1958, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1958. 
  In 1960, the ship was sold to the Chesapeake Bay Ferry District of Norfolk, Virginia and renamed MV Virginia Beach. Resold in 1964 or 1965 to the Delaware River and Bay Authority, she was renamed MV Cape Henlopen and converted to a passenger and auto ferry in 1966, operating between Lewes, Delaware and Cape May, New Jersey. Purchased in 1983 by Cross Sound Ferry Services, Inc. of New London, Connecticut, she underwent a total refurbishment before entering service between Orient Point, New York (Long Island) and New London, perhaps making it the only D-Day veteran ship to still be in active service (map). The ferry was repowered during the winter of 1995 with EMD 12-645 diesel engines.
  MV Cape Henlopen is one of the oldest operating ferries in the world and one of the few ships who served in World War II still in active service.
caption: Passenger deck of the Cape Henlopen.  The award ribbons she earned during World War II are on display.
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