For those that like abandoned ships...

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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May 11, 2010
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Snorting his way across the USA
This is a pretty cool read.

There are a few reserve fleets scattered around the country, and for a while one of the largest was in the Suisun Bay, which is in Northern California in the San Francisco Bay Area. They only have a few ships left these days. I fly over them on a weekly to monthly basis and I've seen the fleet dwindle over the years.

Most were WWII vintage liberty ships and other Navy vessels, with a few commercial cargo and cruise ships thrown in there as well. I've always found them fascinating, and I've always wanted to go poking around inside the ships.

Well the guy in the above link did just that - an illicit scouting mission to photograph the fleet. It's a very interesting story.
 
So, some guy trespasses all over military equipment, makes a web site about it and isn't in jail? Neat pics, I've actually tried to buy one of the ships to restore/convert to a yacht.
 
When I lived in the Sacramento area I drove past this area a few times when in the San Fran area. Always thought it was kinda cool to see. So many big ships. I wondered then what happens to this big boats.

Tony
 
Those fleets have been substantially culled. In 2006 there were many more than today. Same on the James River near Williamsburg, VA. Compare the current Google Earth view with that of 2006.
 
Norman said:
Those fleets have been substantially culled. In 2006 there were many more than today. Same on the James River near Williamsburg, VA. Compare the current Google Earth view with that of 2006.
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There's only a few left on the James right now, probably fewer than 10
 
My first duty station after basic electronics tech school was the mothball fleet at Long Beach Naval Shipyard (1960 or 61). We lived on a destroyer tender that had been moth ballled except for shops and living spaces right after her sea trials at the end of WWII (the Isle Royale). She was later activated and had some Vietnam duty IIRC.

While I was there, the location was being dis-banded and we were riding dead ships under tow up and down the coast to other locations. Some of the ships were maintained in a status such that they could be quickly reactivated. We always had three destroyers alongside the tender and spent 3 months going through each one doing preventative maintenance tests and maintenance. We had 63 ships. Destroyers, attack cargo ships (AKAs), attack troop transports (APAs), high speed troop transports (modified destroyers), floating dry docks, maybe others that I don't remember. Some of the destroyers were pre-WWII types where the O1 level extended from the superstructure to the bow.

Some of the installed radio equipment should have been in the Smithsonian. Giant vacuum tubes with motor generator sets as power supplies. Incidentally, when some idiot hooks two phases of shore power up backwards, the MG sets run backwards and it can take awhile to figure out why they aren't working.
 
SomeTexan said:
So, some guy trespasses all over military equipment, makes a web site about it and isn't in jail? Neat pics, I've actually tried to buy one of the ships to restore/convert to a yacht.
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Yeah I've seen some negative comments. I don't equate it with breaking in to an active military facility with sensitive equipment. Yeah, the law, technically, all right but for all intents and purposes those ships were abandoned.
 
Cool story and pics!

I inferred from the story that the ships only began rusting and causing environmental harm when GWB became president. Weird how that happens! :yikes:
 
ETres said:
Cool story and pics!

I inferred from the story that the ships only began rusting and causing environmental harm when GWB became president. Weird how that happens! :yikes:
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Obama is fixing it! Yay!
 
Here are a couple of pictures I took of the fleet just about the time these guys were down there taking their pictures. They might have been down there for all I know.

IMAG0050.jpg


IMAG0049.jpg
 
Nice pictures! Yeah last time I flew over them there were less than that.

I really like what those guys did by the way. They preserved a piece of history that would have been lost otherwise.

They have some other cool stuff on their site which is in a similar vein.
 
SomeTexan said:
So, some guy trespasses all over military equipment, makes a web site about it and isn't in jail? Neat pics, I've actually tried to buy one of the ships to restore/convert to a yacht.
Click to expand...

You'd be better off paying full price for a brand new yacht. Ships are like airplanes....well actually they are 10x worse. Buy cheap and it will cost you more to fix it up than brand new.
 
ETres said:
Cool story and pics!



I inferred from the story that the ships only began rusting and causing environmental harm when GWB became president. Weird how that happens! :yikes:
Click to expand...

Which is total crap. Most of the ships in the ghost fleets have been there for a very long time...most were mothballed when Reagan was POTUS or before.

It was under Second Bush that they started to thin the reserve fleet. Probably 70% of the mothball fleet has been scrapped or sunk as artificial reefs in the last 14 years.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Which is total crap. Most of the ships in the ghost fleets have been there for a very long time...most were mothballed when Reagan was POTUS or before.

It was under Second Bush that they started to thin the reserve fleet. Probably 70% of the mothball fleet has been scrapped or sunk as artificial reefs in the last 14 years.
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I think you missed the smilie.
 
nddons said:
Duct tape on the USS Iowa's 16" guns? Seriously?
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Obviously they either lost or gave up the protective caps that normally cover the muzzles. They are trying to preserve that ship I understand.
 
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