It’s Anchors Aweigh from L.A. to the Gulf With Cargo for Marines : Middle East: The Cape Borda and four other vessels will carry military equipment to be used by 1st Marine Brigade in Saudi Arabia.

The first of five huge cargo vessels slated to carry tons of military equipment from the Port of Los Angeles to the Persian Gulf is being loaded and will sail within days, military officials said Thursday.

The 515-foot Cape Borda is capable of carrying up to 20 million pounds of supplies and heavy equipment including tanks, personnel carriers and 155-millimeter howitzers. The so-called break-bulk ship is designed so that cargo can be lifted to and from its deck with giant on-board cranes.

Specifically, the Oakland-based vessel and four others not yet in the port will carry enough cargo to support the deployment of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade to Saudi Arabia. The 15,000-Marine brigade from Kaneohe, Hawaii, is scheduled to leave within a week, joining two Marine brigades already in Saudi Arabia, military officials said.

When all five vessels arrive in the Middle East, they will carry enough military equipment to sustain the 1st Brigade for 30 days of combat, officials added.

Three weeks ago, the merchant vessels Cape Ducato and Meteor were the first cargo ships to leave the harbor for the Persian Gulf as part of the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. But those ships left the port without cargo, heading first for Beaumont, Tex., one of the nation’s busiest military seaports since the Middle East crisis began. The Cape Ducato picked up military supplies there and is steaming to the Persian Gulf. The Meteor is en route to Beaumont.

Like the Meteor and Cape Ducato, the Cape Borda is part of the U.S. Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Force of ships available to the Navy on as little as five days’ notice. The Cape Borda, built in 1967 in Avondale, La., has been part of the reserve force--operated by the Maritime Administration--for five years.

The deployment of Cape Ducato and four other cargo ships chartered from private companies has been planned for some time as part of the Military Sealift Command’s role in the Middle East operation known as Desert Shield, military officials said Thursday.

“This is just part of the natural progression of deployment for the operation,” said Marge Holtz, director of public information for the command. Holtz declined to say when the Cape Borda would depart the harbor. Likewise, she refused to name the other four ships that are scheduled within days to arrive in the port to pick up cargo.

She did, however, say the other vessels slated to pick up military cargo in the harbor will not be part of the ready reserve force. Instead, she said, the vessels will be chartered from private companies for the military operation.

Pentagon spokesman Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Wagner said the deployment of the cargo vessels has been long anticipated and was vital to supply the 1st Brigade as soon as possible after its arrival in Saudi Arabia.