Every now and then volunteers are allowed to come up to the Reserve Fleet to pick parts from doomed ships for the USS Hornet. Tuesday and Wednesday were the first time I have ever gone up there in 10 years on the Hornet. Moving heavy equipment from below decks using chain and tackle is one hell of a job. My legs are killing me at the moment. I went there to hunt brass switches, bells, sound power phone outlets and small stuff like that. Instead I ended up helping to remove 1000 lb. pieces of sheet meatl equipment from 3rd deck up to 1st deck for transport off.

Quite a bit of history out here. Not like before since most all warships are gone. However, there was this very large barge (Hughes Mining Barge) that looked like it was once submerged under water given the sea growth inside of it. Turns out it was used to hide a Russian submarine that was lifted from the depths but has still been kept secret even though it is common knowledge out here. Once inside there was this large black boat that looked like a Stealth fighter. I recognized it as the Sea Shadow experimental boat developed by Lockhead in 1985 and spent most of it's life in San Diego. Currently the barge and the boat are up for donation. Anyone interested?

Then we started to cross several oilers plus one old submarine tender. I noticed that it had 5" guns where the barrels had been cut off. Turns out it was built and launched in 1943 and it was still around? Why? All the other ships had been built in the 70's-80's in this row except the last one also. So most of the day was spent on the AO-7 USS Roanoke. During lunch I was able to walk two more ships over to take a look at and walk the decks of BB-61 USS Iowa. Not too often that one gets to walk the decks of a WWII Battleship by oneself. The teak deck is in bad shape and rust is poking through the outside. I know the insides are in good shape as the oilers were in good shape inside. Just walking the deck reminded me of when I walked the floor in Canterbury Cathedral and thought back to all the people who had walked those blocks before.

Got the same feeling along her decks going from WWII up to the explosion in Turret 2 in 1989 that killed 47 sailors. She is up for donation but it seems that every option is falling through. Would hate to see her sunk like the Big O was.

Turret 2 and Turret 1 below...

 

I'd like to be able to go through the mothball fleet. The tender that I spent most of my time on AS-31 has been sold for scrap the last I heard and it was only commissioned in 1963 I believe. When I was on there starting in 68 it always seemed so new, so it is a little bothersome that it has been scrapped. Funny thing is the ship I came back on was built in the 20's or 30's and still had the portholes and is still in use as a berthing ship.

 

It's to bad more of them can't be saved..

It is an excellent experience to get to walk the decks even in rough condition..

We have a couple of ships here in Fall River, MA... They are the Battleship Massachusetts, Joseph P. Kennedy, Lionfish(sub) and the Hiddensee a german/russian missile cruiser..

 

Dunno about a barge, but the Hughes ship used to lift the Russian sub (it broke in half on the way up), is the MV Glomar Explorer. Built by Howard, approved by Nixon. I thought it was among the mothballed fleet in Suisun Bay.

A secret everyone knew about: Later on by request, the US returned the bodies of the sailors that were trapped inside the sub back to Russia.

The sub tender, is it a two stacker of 12,000 or so tons? If so...it's the USS Norton Sound (AV-11), a Currituck Class that was converted to a guided missle trials ship. According to Conway's, it's the last sub tender extant from WWII.

The US Navy also built AR's (repair ships) and AD's (destroyer tenders) off this same (improved Curtiss Class) two stacker design. The USS Prairie was scrapped recently, it was the last AR of this design, so the USS Norton Sound will prolly be next.

I read somewhere that the city of Stockton (CA) was getting the USS Iowa.

I'd hate to see the USS Iowa scrapped, but sometimes the Navy doesn't care.

Despite the pleas of Fleet Admiral Halsey and 1000's of others, the Navy scrapped the USS Enterprise (CV-6) in 1958.

USS Oriskany = better sunk (for use as an artifical reef) than scrapped.

We should consider ourselves lucky to have all the WWII ships we have in Maritime Museums.

The Brits saved exactly one WWII ship, the light cruiser HMS Belfast, which is moored in the Thames River.

The Germans saved one U-boat from WWII, it's on display in Hamburg. The U-505, captured intact in the Atlantic by a US anti-sub force, is on display in Chicago.

The only warship the Japanese have is the HIJMS Mikasa, Admiral Togo's flagship at Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War.

btw: Are you aware if there's any truth to the rumor that there's a partial hull of a 4 piper destroyer in the backwaters of Suisun Bay?

btw, part II: Next time you're in London, visit the Knights Templar Chapel (just south of Fleet Street). That's an eerie place!

 

It is a shame they didn't save the Enterprise..

I hope the carrier John F Kennedy doesn't meet the same fate..
It was just decommissioned within the last year...

I hope They can find a spot for it at battleship cove in Fall River..

 

I wasn't aware that the Glomar Explorer was still around. The Discovery Channel (or possibly the History Channel) had an excellent program several years ago concerning the submarine recovery mission. Interesting stuff!

 

So four battle ships were recommissioned several years back and then decommissioned I am sure for the last time. So the the USS Iowa is in the bay, the USS New Jersey is in Pearl Harbor, where is the Missouri and can't remember the last one.

 

USS Wisconsin.

 

The four Iowa Class Battleships are extant.

The USS Missouri is at Pearl Harbor, it's moored where the Battleship USS California was moored on 7 December 1941.

The USS New Jersey and USS Wisconsin have found new homes, but where they are escapes me.

Other battleships in maritime museums:

USS North Carolina at Wilmington, NC / USS Massachusetts at Fall River, MA / USS Alabama at Mobile Bay, AL / USS Texas near Houston, TX.

The USS Texas is the oldest dreadnought battleship afloat, launched 1912. It was given to the ppl of Texas as a war memorial in 1948.

 

If you are going to get into the where and when of Navy ships then you need to use

Photo Archive Main Index

As for Bill the tender is AS-17 USS Nereus in Nav Source under auxiliary ships. BB-62 is at Camden New Jersey. BB-63 is at Norfolk Virginia to be a museum ship in reserve with the weather decks open only.

Glomar Explorer and the Hughes Mining Barge are two different ships. The Glomar lifted the sub off the floor and it was put into the barge submerged below the Glomar Explorer to hide it. For the Mining Barge check Hughes Mining Barge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Japanese have no ships because 1) we sunk almost everyone of them and 2) what was left were sent to Bikini for the atom bomb tests along with many of our ships. Same true of the Germans as they needed to be destroyed under the treaty provisions.

As for the question about a 4 stacker being out here I can't say I saw one. The ships are placed a fair distance from each other row with about 7-9 per row. Most warships have been gone from here for quite awhile. I never really got to see this storage location as much as I did get to see the one at Hunters Point (Dirty Harry across carrier flight decks on a motorcycle) and the one south of the Coronado Bridge in San Diego back in the late 60's.

 

Not all the German ships were completely destroyed.

There's the German Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen, partially sunk off Kwajalein. It survived the A-test at Bikini and was towed to Kwajalein in 1946 in a leaky condition, where it capsized. About 100 ft of the aft part of the ship is out of water.

The Prinz Eugen scored the first hit on the HMS Hood during the battle between those two ships and the Bismarck and Prince of Wales. When the action opened, the Hood fired on the Prinz Eugen in error as its profile was similar to the Bismarck's, while the Prince of Wales fired on the Bismarck.

There's still an argument today on which German ship actually sank the Hood, as the Prinz Eugen's hit on the Hood was where Hood later exploded (twice), broke into three pieces and sank in seconds.

Iowa Class: BB-61 is the Iowa, BB-62 is the New Jersey, BB-63 is the Missouri, BB-64 is the Wisconsin. BB's 65 (Illinois) and 66 (Kentucky) were cancelled.

My sources include: Jane's Fighting Ships: 1919; 1946 and 1975 editions / Conway's, a 1995 updated edition of the 1980 printing which covers from 1922 up, and dozens of books from the Naval Institute Press.

 

My mistake on the Wisconsin as I know better but once in awhile mix up a few. Just try to keep straight in your head the number designations for all the Essex Class carriers...

 

Here's a couple of shots of the USS North Carolina, taken last year.





I absolutely love Battleships!

My Dad and I (used to) argue/discuss which was more beautiful cutting through the seas. . . . Battleships or Aircraft Carriers.

Battleships, of course!!!!!!! (Dad always preferred carriers. He helped build the Essex and Hornet.)


As for the Oriskany, did anyone see the show on The Military Channel, where these guys dived on it?

 

That'll never happen, I'm a battleship sailor.

I can waltz thru the first 9 CV's....after that...I need references.

 

Great link. Thanks for the memories.