The Mothball Fleet
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 พ.ย. 2019
- Ever wonder what happened to the vast amount of American warships built during WW2?
In this brief video I talk about the mothballing process and how warships were disposed of once they were no longer needed.
Photo and Information Sources:
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Wikimedia Commons
In the 70s as a kid I remember seeing rows and rows of "reserve" ships at the Philadelphia Navy Yard; it was something to see.
Same in Boston
I was in Philadelphia naval hospital apron returning from Vietnam in 1969. Then sent to navy yard to await discharge. I just swam in one the pools and walked around looking at the ship, many never used.
I was really sad when the Philly Navy shipyard was closed.
I was stationed at PNSY in the mid 80's while waiting for my ship to come out of SLEP. It was nice you could walk from the base to the Spectrum and catch the train to go into the city.
My grandfather who was from Michigan was on the USS Pennsylvania and became good friends with another sailor named Jim , they were both Junior Lt’s on their way back from Pearl Harbor where they were supposed to get on a airplane and head to Connecticut and start sub school , something happened in the Atlantic Ocean with one of are ships being sunk by the Germans so they were given new orders to go to Philadelphia Navy yard for some type of upgrade which my grandfathers best friend got excited about because he was from Philadelphia, ship hits the canal they both cross the equator so they do that ceremony on the ship where they dunk you in a pool of water and the chief of the boat where’s some custom with a long beard and holds a trident ( I have his certificate and all of the pictures) the ship pulls into the navy yard , all the ammunition has to be unloaded so they don’t get liberty for almost five days . They finally both get liberty together but my grandfather was from a college town in Michigan he doesn’t know anything about Philadelphia so his friend Jim invites him up to his parents house in Kensington ( when it was in its heyday) he tags along they hop on the EL and in 20 mins they surprise his family showing up without any warning, they treat my grandfather like their own son his friend Jim introduces my grandfather to his sister who is one year older then my grandfather, one thing leads to another they are married 6 months later,and my mom is born 9 months after their honeymoon which was a day pass to Willow Grove park and a few nights in some fancy center city hotel . Then of course he gets his orders goes out to sea , almost gets killed by a Japanese submarine that followed them for two days before shooting torpedos at them that missed and ended the war in the central pacific. He came home met his new daughter and wife and stayed married for 45 years until my grandmother died and he lived for another 8 years but he was never the same after he lost his wife .
My father was a gunner on the Missouri in the latter part of WWII. Before he passed I took him for a tour on the New Jersey. He cried the whole time. Me too. He otherwise never spoke of the war. Before or after. Many of his shipmates are buried at Washington’s Crossing National Cemetery. So that is where he wanted to go. That is where he is. God bless you Dad. I feel a tremendous amount of pride for your service to your nation. Thank you. I miss you. I love you. God bless America and all those who serve. Then and now.
i was on the deck of the missouri back in 99 at pearl harbor. they had just opened it to the public and i was with a group that was listening to an older gentleman talking about an attack on the ship during ww2. At first i thought he was just a tour guide but he started talking about where he was at the time of attack and what was damaged. Holy crap talk about history firsthand
It’s because of your father. That we as Americans live free. God Bless the American Service Members. THE TIP OF THE SPEAR.
We also used a lot for target practice. I was an Iowa battleship sailor, and we'd blow up and sink old WWII ships with our 16 inch guns.
Which one
I happen to have a nice 16 inch gun right here
@@mattthemusicman2037 The Iowa
@@captainjackpugh6050 That's what she said
@@jimlincoln1283 I don’t think she would have said that
Many of us in the San Francisco Bay Area saw those ships when traveling on the bridge crossing Suisun bay. Several times i sailed smaller sailboats close to them and was always taken aback by their immensity. Thanks for the video, good job
My former navy ship, USS FOX(DLG-33), spent her last days in Suisun Bay. Spent two years on her; nine months of that time in Vietnam. Lots of history in Suisun Bay.
I live 15 minutes from the fleet. See it all the time crossing the Benicia Bridge.
Anyone here recall that newspaper article about a stealth boat being stored within a carrier?
@chipcurry - I used to live in Benicia and drove over the bridge by the fleet twice a day. Never failed to peak my imagination to see them. The Glomar Explorer was left there for years and then suddenly one morning it was gone. Pretty interesting. Fantastic history.
I remember seeing that for the first time, Suisun Bay crossing the bridge not knowing that such a large fleet was mothballed there, I was blown away. Must of been in the early 80's I would guesstimate.
Scary bridge
As a young boy I remember seeing dozens of military ships in "mothballs" (The Bay Area or San Diego, CA?). I thought to myself, we have a very large Navy. In the 1950s, Army/Navy store were in every city. They had tons of new unused equipment for Pennys on the dollar. New Jeeps in boxes, ready for transport, were $50. Sadly, I didn't have any Pennys at the time.
The $50 Jeep in a crate story has been dispelled as a myth numerous times. There is no evidence to indicate this ever occurred. Jeeps in a crate were somewhat rare, especially within the US as crating a Jeep was only used as a shipping method to send them overseas. A few were sold like this inside the US, but not many at all. The ads for $50 Jeeps in a crate persisted for years in the back of magazines, but sadly it was never more than a scam. Send them money and they only provided publicly available, free information on government surplus auctions.
@@Colonel_Obvious I remember seeing those ads as kid, even as 12 years old I found it hard to believe.
There were lots of stories about people finding a crate with an army surplus Harley-Davidson inside, covered with cosmoline.
@@bigredc222 I don’t know much about the H-D in a crate stories, but I’d wager those were tall tales as well. Might have happened a time or two, but more likely they were never widely available in crates, or for that cheap.
The army/navy store here ran until surplus ran out and they tried to resell ACU gear. 600 bucks for a pack with no frame when ALICE packs with a frame were like 120.
@@JarthenGreenmeadow you mean UCP gear. But, yes that is outrageous. $600 for a UCP ruck without frame?! I’ve got one with a frame I’ll let go for $599. 😆
Good content professionally presented. A welcomed relief from the buffoonery we encounter on so many TH-cam documentaries.
Buffoonery? I say Burntsider, your cheeky commentary has not gone unnoticed, but pray take care - once one invokes the term “buffoonery”, I fear one cannot retract such a slight devoid of consequence!
Upvote for correct use of "buffoonery". Spiffing!
Gadzooks! The buffoonery indeed!
Do you still live with your mum and dad?
@@paulkazjack 🙄
I'm still sore about what happened to the Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. She should of been made into a museum!
During the Deactivation Process, too much of the interior of the Carrier had to be cut out to Remove the Reactors. It will be too costly to make ready and maintain as a museum.
Curt, John Wayne is referring to the WWII Enterprise CVA-6 which was powered by fuel oil. You’re think of it’s descendent Enterprise CVN-65, a nuclear powered carrier launched about 15 years after the previous version was scrapped. (And centuries after the original sail-powered FRIGATE was sunk in the Pacific by the British)
HALSEY did all he could to save CV 6. 5 stars was not enough. Sad.
@@curtekstrom9531 I was talking about the WW2 one..has so many battle awards and famous people were on it.
@@johnwayne6501 John, the thing about floating ships as museums is they cost a ton of money to keep up. Now that the Greatest Generation has passed, there is little demand for the ones that are out there. If you’re interested go visit one like the Hornet in Alameda and drop a donation in the box or better yet become a volunteer. I’ve spent many unpaid hours keeping the Potomac (FDR’s presidential yacht) operational. They are always broke.
You know you have a giant navy when you have to decide what you're gonna do with all those ships.
Those ships would make great artificial reefs!
@@drewbowers5476 I'd love to buy one if I had the money. It's sickening that we scrapped the most decorated ships in U.S. history. Those should have been saved, not the newest.
@@GetDougDimmadomed A navy exists to protect the nation, not to preserve obsolete vessels that would be a death trap if used in modern warfare. There's a simple reason these old ships were not preserved -nobody was interested at the time, and even fewer people are today.
@@davidjones332 Uh...there are plenty of preserved ships from WWII.
@THUN QI FAY - actually the Navy have more than the air force
The Navy during Desert Storm: “C’mon, let us shoot the big guns just one more time! Pleeeeeaaase???”
Nah you gonna win to quickly 😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤 USA USA 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Can’t wait for you to turn eleven years old.
@@kingkoopa5807 but... US didn't win, they got embroiled in a 20+ years conflict which still didn't end, and the region is highly unstable to this day
@@justADeni nah man we won the first gulf war where desert storm was
You’re thinking of the 2nd
@@shadowling77777 'we won'..... but Suddam survived and came back again.
RIP USS Enterprise, CV-6. The persons responsible for allowing her to go to the scrapyard should be ashamed.
My cousin ( a BIG star trek fan ) was in the Navy. After 4 yrs, he agreed to sign up for another term just so he could serve on that particular ship.
@@timothyblackburn6801 you might mean CVN-65 was contemporary to Star Trek, CV-6 is significantly older
That ship was decommissioned in 1947 time you got over it
@@nolankahler6705 well there has been 8 ships total that have carried the name. I do know it was an aircraft carrier but it was in the 1980's.
Onboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), there was a profile of the Starship Enterprise painted on the deck tiles in the island on the way up to the bridge.
The USS Alabama is one of those non Iowa class Battleships that survived..Its in Mobile Alabama and is a museum with the majority of the ship in original condition..It’s privately owned and the museum entrance fee helps keep the ship preserved. It’s pretty cool to just walk the corridors and explore.
I’ve been to the Alabama several times and have found new areas to explore each time. Great museum and well worth the cost of admission.
I've toured the Alabama and Drum as well. Also got the chance to go aboard the Texas when I lived in Houston. It's a shame that more of these historical ships were not preserved. Would have loved the chance to tour the Enterprise.
BB60 Is an Alaska Class if I am not mistaken.
@@Lolita327 Alaskas were heavy cruisers, not battleships...almost battlecrusiers, though I won't argue those fine distinctions.
I actually got to spend a weekend on the ship while in Boy Scouts. Slept on the ship and all. Super cool. We ran around and played hide and go seek on the upper decks
Around 1958 my dad rented a row boat in the San Francisco Bay area and we went out to see the ship that was mothballed there. I was 4 years old and still remember looking up at the Destroyer Escort he served on in WWII. The DE707 USS JOBE which served in the South Pacific.
1:45 imagine seeing a sight like that today, in person
That’s bad man, it means war
unfortunately it is a likely scenario some time in the future.
All those “jeep” carriers
@@billyliddy5833 I don’t think we will be seeing ww2 escort carriers and destroyers out on the open seas anytime soon
@buffalo wt But does that mean we have to wage a war before to see this sight? I think its bad lol.
It’s fantastic to know they aren’t simply stripped & melted down.
They are now
why should we not? It is a lot if steel that nobody would not look again ever.
Hell they used ammo from 45 when they started shelling Saddam from the Missouri was reactivated and had updated fire control I think but using ww2 cartridges I bet that's a rush first time u hear them things start cracking away
Well. they did cost some money, plus the fact that nobody knew if the cold war changes it's stratus to hot war.
That would make too much sense
I remember my dad taking me to see the Hudson River mothball fleet in N.Y. We only lived a couple of hours away. Until now I never knew there were any others.
We lived only about 10 minutes away and would bring our boat Up the Hudson River and my father would take the boat along side the ships then a boat would come out and chase us away! But I think most of those ships were liberty ships that would design to transport supplies a crossed the Atlantic ocean. Miss those days🤔😁🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
@@kevinbarletta7749 I grew up in Rockland County NY and would see the Mothball Fleet (mostly Victory Ship freighters) up around Bear Mountain.
@@bobcole612 Yes Bob it was between stony point battlefield to the south and Jones point to the north. There’s a monument there on the west shore route 202 that pays tribute to the mothball fleet. You can see it on Google map👍🇺🇸
@@kevinbarletta7749 The mothballed fleet was on Route 9W (never referred to as Rt.202) in Tompkins Cove.
I remember seeing the mothballed Liberty ships on Rte 9w in NY back in the 70s. Even though it was a small fleet, the ships were impressive to a kid.
In 95 I re-enlisted onboard the Hornet after she was turned into a museum at NAS Alameda. Lot of work to transform her for that final duty... sitting across piers from more modern Nimitz class CVN’s really put things in perspective. Amazing as she may have been in her day, she couldn’t begin to stack up to the current fleet
My uncle served on the Hornet in WWII. She had a great history. My uncle never really recovered from his service actions and eventually died earlier than normal due to mental and physical problems connected to the War. He could not speak about it telling of only one horrific incident he could not finish. We must always remember and honor our military. They are vey special and carry silent wounds of heart and mind as well as body. They are always in our prayers.
Those long rows of empty aircraft carriers side by side are too sexy for me
Never seen that till now.
YOU’RE TO SEXY TO BE INCOGNITO , OR A TOMATO . . . jus’ sayin’
Finna make me act up😜
Well the Navy's about getting wet.
@@ScarGuy2003 And full of things that are long, hard and full of seamen.
I have visited the USS Alabama in Mobile , Alabama . I'm glad Its saved as part of history .
Thank you for this. In the photograph at the 00:37 make is the carrier USS CABOT 28, the carrier my dad flew from between August 1944 to April 1945
What a great picture of the Mighty Mo firing a shell!
Dad had a color overhead shot of it firing. A ship he missed after getting yanked off and being sent to Great Lakes. Where after he completed the class there, they kept him there as an instructor for the whole Korean War.
@@foobarmaximus3506 Well he did get promoted while there. He escaped as an E-6 when they told him the only way out was to change from an ET to a CT. Which he did. The other thing they do is make you an officer, if you are willing to go that route. Dad refused more than once. And retired after 25 years as an E-9. Which he had been for the past 7 years.
I was in the Navy from 84’-88’ and serves as an avionics tech onboard the Constellation CV-64 & Ranger CV-61. A friend of mine served on the battleship New Jersey BB-62 and gave me a tour when it was active and at Coronado island. Very impressive ship. Had the opportunity to see the Iowa BB-61 a few years ago. This is the flagship of its class and the combat bridge is something to behold. It is encased in 17 inch thick steel.
I did two tours on the Connie, 69 and 71, I was a BT3, saw the mighty mo at Bremerton Washington, the New Jersey at San Diego
Wow, 17 inch thick. That is some steel just there!!! 👍🏻🇺🇸🇦🇺
@@larrymotes3512, very cool! Was that after Vietnam? I was an AT3 and worked in AIMD while onboard. The only time I went deep into the ship was when my supervisor sent me there to get an MM punch. Lol.
@@peterwallace9764 Yes! I was blown away when I saw that. It had to make you feel invincible during combat. If I remember correctly, the hull has 12 inches of steel with an additional 1 inch hardened outer layer.
Did they really play the William Tell overture launching planes on Ranger?
Good report, thanks. One of the highlights of taking the train to Oregon were the great views of the Suisin Bay mothball fleet.
Thanks for the kind words! That sounds like an amazing trip.
While riding the Zephyr to Salt Lake in early 2002, the conductor pointed out USS Iowa moored within the Suisun mothball fleet.
Stockton California had also a fleet of mothballed ships docked here in the 1960's...they were later moved too Suisun Bay .
Now Suisan bay is pretty much emptied of ships. Only three or four looking at the latest satellite views
Isn't stockton around 50 miles inland? How did they get there?
@@cattibingo so I googled Stockton and wouldn't you know that Sacramento and Stockton are actually port cities that handle ocean going cargo ships. Learn something everyday :)
@@cattibingo: The Deep Water Channel. Runs from S.F. Bay to both inland ports. Port of Stockton, and the Port of Sacramento. I worked at the Port of Sacramento for several years as Electrical Superintendent.
Yep, the mothball fleet at Rough & Ready Island, Stockton, CA was my first duty station out of boot camp back in 1962. It was dismantled 3-4 years later and moved down the river to Suisan Bay.
This is youtube at its best. No stupid music. No rubbish intros. No product placements. No political discourse. Just.. Pure... Beautiful... Knowlege.
as a younger person I love this comment section and all the knowledge, stories, and history inside of it.
The Bremerton Shipyard did a great deal of mothballing. I remember trips past the harbor during the early sixties. I was so curious about where these ships would go. It was a marvel to behold as the highway(WA16) made a near full circle around the harbor in which the ships had been anchored, following each ship’s treatment. I was one lucky kid.
My dad's ship from the 70s was in Mothballs in Bremerton in the 90s.
USS Holland. Submarine tender with a complete machine shop onboard
@@foobarmaximus3506 my dad was telling me that you couldn't make anything in the machine shop whilst under way. Said he spent those hours in the engine room
Are the bermton ship open for public beiwung
@@foobarmaximus3506 Submarines required constant maintenance, especially machining services. RADM Charles Lockwood set up the Aussie version of a sub refit base in N. Australia. The men in this base saved and refit many subs and crews!
Grew up in Oakland, California. I'll never forget seeing those ships any time I crossed the Benicia bridge. My grandpa, who was a B-24 pilot in WW2 would always tell me stories of various missions he flew. Although he wasn't in the Navy, I think just the sight of WW2 era military equipment brought back those memories. As I got older, I always noticed the number of ships getting progressively fewer. R.I.P. Mothball Fleet. You served well.
-Former Marine, 0313
I remember using Google Earth to zoom in on the mothball fleet in Philadelphia and coming across the USS Des Moines. I thought it was a gorgeous ship even sitting there in her mothballed state. It was a sad day for me when she was towed into the breakers in Brownsville.
Thanks for the interesting video. I remember as a small boy in the early 60's our Uncle John, who was a US Navy Veteran of WW II,
took us on a road trip to the Catskills from our home in New Rochelle, NY. Part of the trip took us upstate along the Hudson River.
The highlight of the trip for me was seeing all those Navy ships in the river. WOW there seemed like there were hundreds of them.
I found out later as an adult this was the Hudson River Reserve Fleet.
Liked....Subbed....Rang da bell
Thanks for sharing the memory! I wish I was alive back then and able to see some of those ships. Shame that nearly all were scrapped. Thanks for the sub!
Yes. There was a large fleet in the Hudson river anchored in northern Rockland County, south of West Point. I think they were removed when I was in Nam, late ‘60s
There was one on the East Coast & one on the West Coast. At the Height of Ship Building during WWII America was churning out a War Ship every Month, Japan Simply couldn't keep up
There was a huge mothball fleet in Puget Sound, mostly the merchant marine ships. I remember as a kid going along on my grandfathers boat through Puget Sound and counting the ships with my brother and sister. There was at least 125 or 126. Later as I grew older they started to scrap them at Stidels (Spelling) shipyards in Tacoma.
In 1971 as an ordinary seaman on HMAS Duchess I saw across Sydney harbour WW2 ships of the Q class. From memory it was the Quickmatch. We, my fellow ords tried several times to tour but always rejected. Then I got to see the Castlemaine. I have read many books on seaman fighting through wars from wind to modern day but touring those WW2 ships gave me the heebies.
Duchess was a crew of 325 hammocks were still in use. The guns were 4.5inch twin barrel cannons and a broadside scared the bejesus out of you. 17 years old and thought this is where the adventure begins.
Boy oh boy did it ever.
Alister McClean wrote an excellent WW2 story about HMS Ulyses. The battle depiction had me in tears. The next day I am in the bowels of our ship man handling shells the the gunbay from the magazine exercise our abilities to rapid fire. That in itself gave me pause.
My dad was on the USS Astoria and the USS Fall River. Both were placed into the reserve fleet and mothballed and scrapped sometime around the late 60's, early 70's. Very unreal that most of the WWII generation is gone and the remainder are passing at a prodigious rate. 76 years on they're still the Greatest Generation.
The New Jersey docked in Camden county is a place to visit. Can't stress this enough to please donate to these museums.
I've been on the alabama, massachusetts and even spent the night on the Texas. These ships are really worth visiting and supporting, as each have unique stories.
I've been on the Alabama and the Missouri. Want to see the New Jersey and the others.
My Uncle was a Navy man who served on the Enterprise in WW 2. He lived in San Diego and in 1968 we visited him. There were hundreds of ships all lined up.
One of the non Iowa class battleships that is now a museum is the USS Massachusetts in Battleship cove in Mass
Toured the mamie summer 1997. Also the NC and Alabama. Good memories.
There used to be a bunch of these old ships located up the St Johns River at Green Cove Springs. I saw them with amazement as a kid, on the way to Kingsley Lake ... it was an awesome sight.
So glad the USS North Carolina BB-55, of the first WWII era battleship class is still preserved in Wilmington, NC after NC schoolchildren helped raise funds to save her in the early 60’s. I have been aboard many times. Sadly her sister USS Washington BB-56 met the scrappers fate. There is a spare propeller stamped BB-55 class also at the memorial park, as well as a Kingfisher scout plane on deck. Probably the largest difference compared to her active service configuration is that the aircraft catapults were removed at some point during the mothballed period. All the WWI battleships except USS Texas either were cut up or sunk as targets or scuttled after being used as targets. Also meeting the same fate as USS Washington were the USS South Dakota BB-57 and USS Indiana BB-58, and the last two Iowa’s that were never finished (Illinois and Kentucky). Fun fact: Kentucky’s bow section was used to repair USS Wisconsin after she was damaged.
The bow was replaced after Captain Brown ran her hard aground earning the nickname "Brown water Brown. The main engines from the Illinois were used in the USS Sacramento AOE-1. In November 1965 at Naval Station San Diego, they had sailors in the transit barracks working on the moth ball fleet preparing them for demolition. I was there for three weeks waiting for the USS Iwo Jima LPH-2 to return from westpac.
Well presented and without silly background music. Interesting. Good job
You wouldn’t know because you’d have to be pretty local to know but Suisun is pronounced more like soo-soon. Great vid. I’ve watched the fleet shrink markedly over the years with an average of around 12 -20 ships out there these days.
Ah, well thanks for the correction. I watched a bunch of news clips but each of them pronounced it a little bit different! Must be sad seeing all those historic ships disappear.
Try 6 ships, and a handful of assorted large boats and barges.
The Glomar Explorer was parked there in Suisun Bay for a while too. I remember watching the fleet get smaller and smaller during the 70's, 80's & 90's
The Hughes Mining Barge as well. Eventually it was sold to some outfit that was going to turn it into some sort of entertainment venue. It was moored at Treasure Island in the middle of the SF bay for a while. I don't what ever became of it.
My uncle worked for decades at Mare Island. He maintains that the cover story that we only got bits and pieces of k129 were bs. He says we got the whole sub intact
Glomar Explorer has been scrapped
So glad that this game across my feed! Remarkably short, engaging content. Thank you!
I was stationed in Bremerton Washington in the reserve fleet and was pier sentry on the big mo cleaned her decks and let people on and off her 1965
I was in Bremerton in 2008. Went down just outside the base and saw an old aircraft carrier. I was only about 50 yards away, so it was very impressive. It's sad to think they are all gone now.
In 1968 I worked with a man from San Diego. His dad bought a destroyer escort from the mothball fleet after the war and used it in his commercial fishing business out of San Diego.
I assume fishing with depth carges?
I grew up in the Bay Area and vividly remember seeing the mothball fleet quite often. It was only when they moved most of everything there that I really began to appreciate the ships there. Once they were removed it was “ah man, I should have enjoyed them more” the battleship in that fleet I think the Iowa was moved to San Diego I believe. Seeing it be towed under the golden gate was quite awesome.
Thanks for watching! I will actually have two video coming out next week, so be on the lookout for them Wednesday and Thursday!
Glad to find your video- and as I hit the Like button, the 10K Appeared! Hats off to you. A milestone well deserved
Good job! My father-in-law headed up the reserve fleet on the James River during the 70’s and 80’s so your video brought back some wonderful memories.
I got to visit the North Carolina as a memorial and seen the Iowa when I was in the Navy, truly awesome ships.
Green Cove Springs, Fl was another place they had a mothball fleet after WWII. They sat in fresh water on the St. Johns river.
I grew up on the James River in Virginia. We had the James River Reserve Fleet. We use to call them the ships.
I grew up in Va beach and learn to fly as teenager, flying up James River you see these ships just North of Felker Army Airfield Fort Euastis this was in the early to mid 70’s
The mothball fleet at Rough & Ready Island, Stockton, CA was my first duty station out of boot camp back in 1962. It was dismantled 3-4 years later and moved down the river to Suisan Bay.
I like the no nonsense approch to your vids. PLEASE DONT CHANGE and I will subscribe.
Some of the ships I was stationed on sat in suisan bay for decades before being scrapped. The USS TULARE LKA 112 was one of them. She was a workhorse in Vietnam as flag ship for CTF 76.
I came across this video and it reminded me of a visit to the Philadelphia naval yard in July 1976 where we were met by Commandant Baker and then a tour of a aircraft carrier, after all these years the memory is still vivid!!
Spent 5 years in Philadelphia on 2 Frigates... I took my kids to see the mothballed ships many times, always a thrill for all...
Chuck in Michigan
U.S. Navy Retired
Flew over it today in a plane, first time seeing a navy ship in person, and that was alot of navy ships.
Short and to the point... I loved it
I was stationed in Bremerton Washington in the early 80's when The Enterprise was undergoing an overhaul. I'd walk to piers of old warships in mothballs. I'm disappointed that I couldn't take any photography because it was prohibited on that base. Very cool days back then.
The opening shows merchant ships (probably mainly British) forming a convoy in Bedford Basin, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Iconic photo but odd given the subject of the video.
Short, to the point, very well done. Greetings from North Michigan USA.
Now is that fake up north like Traverse City or the real UP up north?
@@shadymaint1 I guess to you Cupcake it would be the Fake Up North. However I was born in Reykjavik, Iceland. Anywhere in Michigan is like the Tropics to me. You have no idea what up North is. Ola.
I remember working on one of those pulled out of mothballs. That was back in the late 70's.Everything needed a lot of work. I did the radar installation. Amazingly we actually got out to sea trials and it did well.
You can easily see some from I 95 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Navy Yard. Always thought how interesting it would be to explore them!
In the late 60s I saw dozens of decommissioned ships berthed up the Hudson River near bear mountain. Quite a site for a small kid from New York.
I worked on both the New Jersey and the Missouri when they were re activated in the 1980's at the Long beach Naval Shipyard... Sam Adler shop 17
USS Wabash (AOR-5)
Pier E
NAVSTA Long Beach
Did you know a Mr Chipman?
Sorry I don't think so.
My dad had just retired in 80... He was in the sonar shop through the 70s. I grew up in the LBNS drydocks, and going to sea with him when the then-new Spruances were doing pre and post-commissioning trials. Lots of fun memories, like seeing the Titanic models (for that horrible movie version of Clive Cusslers "Raise the Titanic" ) in the RV lockup, or always gawking at "Herman the German"... Sad that LBNS is no more...!!
What a cool experience to work on the BBs!! I toured Missouri in Bremerton just before she left for reactivation. Then, years later, I got orders to serve on her in late '90. Sadly, those orders were changed, but I still think of her as "my" ship...👍
As a kid driving by Suisun Bay with my parents heading up to Sacramento to visit family in the 70s and 80s, my favorite part of the trip was driving by the mothball fleet. It was amazing to see so many ships!
use to have a dozens of old navy ships mothballed southern puget sound growing up. they slowly diminished until all were towed away.
I was stationed at Coast Guard Station Carquinez during 94-98 and our AOR included the Mothball fleet near middleground suisun bay. There was one ship that was not like the others and was sitting just off to the side of the other mothballed ships, it was called the glomar explorer, a CIA ship (I had no idea at the time of its history). Our crew would sometimes patrol these ships at night and hear them grinding against each other, and I especially liked the USCGC glacier coast guard cutter and the wooden (military) minesweeping boats. We *may* have explored a few of these ships, but were advised that the glomar was strictly off limits. I wish I knew then, what I know now.
I served on the glacier for deep freeze 76 and went on the deck of the glomar explorer when I was at the LA Captain of the Port for an oil spill investigation.
@@agilemalinois1602 I knew a QMC Fleming who served on the glacier around that time. Only woman I ever knew who smoked a bigger tobacco pipe than the BMC.
Such a good channel
It was an obligatory click, given that thumbnail shot of San Diego harbor.
I sailed in and out of there many times. What a fine city and area.
I also got to take a small boat alongside some more modern mothballed vessels moored in Chesapeake Bay near Little Creek. Thanks for this upload. :}
Thanks for sharing. You chose a nice selection of pictures.
Man I live in California and drive by Benicia all the time and saw these beautiful ships. Shame there are only 4 left in the bay
Only 4 ships left down there?
.....they might have lasted longer in frozen cold storage say north Alaska .
@@charlesdickens6706 not really
I didn't notice how many last time I went by there, but Google satellite view shows 6 plus a few small ones.
We moved to Suisun City as a teen, I know this fleet very well.
I grew up next to the Mothball Fleet in Martinez. It is now the mothball few. I counted five ships last time I drove up to that area.
My brother in law was on the USS Missouri during Desert Storm and said they were firing from the gulf inland 20+ miles with the big guns. Said the whole ship rock back with firing all of 1 side.
The USS Alabama is a South Dakota class WW2 era fast battleship that is currently docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama as a museum ship and there are other military attractions around it such as the WW2 submarine USS Drum. The park is open pretty much all the time.
I spent a whole day on the Alabama.Awesome!Did you know that the Drum had the 6th highest tonnage of enemy ships sunk in WW II?
In1948 my Dad took us to see our. gr parents,aunt's,uncle's and cousins in Tacoma, Wash. I remember 6 aircraft carriers tied up to various docks in Puget Sound.
I loved the photo of "Missouri firing her guns during Desert Storm. I went on board her in Bahrain just before she headed back to the States. I tried to get a mug, but the ships store was sold out. I ended up with a ball cap. When I was in Bremerton, WA the New Jersey tied up across from us when she came back from 'Nam. Very sad to see most of these ships scrapped. Even the ship I was on in the early '70's is gone.
I was a young Naval Sea Cadet aboard one of the tugs that met the New Jersey coming up the channel from Seattle in '69, we tied her up alongside the Missouri . Great memories for a young kid.
Flew from Whidbey Island NAS to NTC San Diego in an old R4D too (2 week boot camp).
I served aboard 3 LPH's in the early-mid 70's, (WestPac and MedCruise) all in Davey Jones locker today, gunnery targets. And an LST which went to Oz Navy, gave it a Kiwi name.
The old James River fleet used to be huge in the 80s but is mostly gone now. You could see it on roller coaster rides from Busch Gardens ,until the last few years.
Very good and interesting! Thank you!
Thanks!
I have personally been in some of these ships. Pretty damn scary if you go down there with just battle lanterns. We were sent there to look for parts LOL. Of course this is while I was still in the Navy. You hear things down in those ships... Damn things are definitely haunted LOL
That's just the wind.
Also expansion/contraction of parts without machinery noises or ventilation blast or the sea to drown them out.
A video of the SS United States in modern times shows this very well. It’s constantly making noise.
There was a reserve fleet of several hundred ships in my hometown of Orange Tx. They gave some of them to the babies of Mexico, columbia, and others. The rest were scrapped eventually.
I really love that the 4 Iowa class battleships were set to become museums . My dad server aboard the BB62 ( U.S.S. New Jersey ) and was a head commissaryman in charge of the starboard galley with his battle station being in one of the 3 gun mounts on the fantail of the ship . My brother has taken his family to visit the ship a number of times but as much as I would love to go , I'm not able to make it myself due to being disabled . I really miss my dad regaling us with stories of his ship and some of the battles they were in , and the number of enemy planes that were shot down in a 48 hour long battle . I also really love the picture at 2:38 in the video .
I always have time to watch films like this.. thanks for sharing it..
Interesting. I think that USS Alabama and USS North Carolina are still here today, as well as the dreadnaught USS Texas. Visting at least one battleship has been on my bucket list for a while. I did go on USS Constitution twice, and it was really neat. Anyway, neat video.
Edit: Gosh, I almost forgot about the USS Massachusetts in Battleship Cove.
I have been to the USS Alabama several times and it is well worth the visit. There is also an aircraft museum and submarine next to it that you can walk though. Highly recommended.
I've been to the USS north carolina.beautiful ship.great walkthrough tour with much history.my grandfather was stationed on it,and was aboard when it was hit with a torpedo.highly recomend you visit
i pass by the BAMA 5 days a week...and never fail to salute her..
Bremerton had quite a fleet in the 70’s and early 80’s
3 of the 5 ships I served on were either scrapped or sunk as a target ship; USS Semmes DDG 18 and USS Cape Cod AD 43 were scrapped while USS Kinkaid DD 965 was used as a target during SinkEx
The Sprus were decommed before their time... Sad...😔
@@wheels-n-tires1846 Yes they were. The Navy spent millions on installing VLS, TAS, and RAST systems just to decom. Their hulls had many more years of service left...
Me too I remember the 'mothball fleet' at Martinez (Suisun bay) on the west coast. They kept the Glomar explorer, and the Iowa for a while.
Cool video. Very informative and to the point. Subbed bruh
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!
Suisun Bay (/səˈsuːn/ sə-SOON) is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the entrance to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suisun_Bay
Good video, concise, to the point
Thanks so much buddy. Great video. I’ll look forward to more.
Navy: what are we going to do with these ships now
Airforce: NUK'EM
It be nice to bring in a few mothball ships into the reserve centers to be used and maintained by reservist for training purposes.
Even have the mothball ships docked near cities that have rivers big enough to use as backup power plants and emergency supplies stored in them for natural disasters.
Or even use them for housing our homeless veterans.
Narrator said the largest WW2 "mothball fleet" was moored in "Susan" Bay, CA.
Ahem. The name of this California estuary area is pronounced "Sis-SOON" Bay. Or "Sah-SOON" Bay. Many a kid in the backseat of his parent's car traveled by freeway next to this massive fleet in decades past, and could only imagine the power the US Navy in WWII. We always thought: "Let's send these boats all out to sea again, and show the world our amazing backlot of beautiful gray ships. . ."
The USS North Carolina is a floating museum moored in Wilmington NC. Awesome to walk.
1973. I was 14 when I visited the USS North Carolina.
When I was a kid in the 50's Commencement Bay, off of Tacoma in Puget Sound was home to hundreds of Liberty Ships. They literally filled the Bay with her grey hulls. My Dad insisted you could walk across the Bay from one ship to another.
I lived in Bremerton in the late 60's, we had rows of them, including the Missouri and Bennington. Was on the sea going tug when the New Jersey came in from VN in '69, we tied her up alongside the Missouri.
One of the Mighty Mo's 16" guns is lying on trail in Ft Cronkite at north end of Golden Gate Bridge.
I remember as a kid touring the USS Missouri in Bremerton ,WA and being in awe of those massive cannons that were plugged .I was sad to see it leave and then be relocated to Hawaii .
I grew up in san Jose ca and moved to the foothills of NorCal in my early teens. Crossed the carquinez bridge monthly for years. It was always cool to see the mothballed fleet. It’s definitely shrunk over the decades.
Also at San Fransisco they had huge moth ball fleet.
Suisun Bay is the huge mothball fleet at San Francisco, near San Francisco. There never was a mothball fleet in the San Francisco Bay but San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay are 2 bays inland from the San Francisco Bay that many people think are the San Francisco Bay.
@@wmtrader Thanks!
The Alabama was converted into a museum and is currently open. Some other BB may be as well.
The North Carolina, all four Iowas, the Massachusetts and Texas are all memorials, I believe that they are all open. I wouldn't mind going to Long Beach and seeing the Iowa. And yes I have also seen the Alabama, and that ship was awesome.