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Grant Davis
05-30-2006, 2:35 PM
and not the woodworking kind...

http://www.irishmansoftware.com/Oriskany.htm (http://www.irishmansoftware.com/Oriskany.htm)

Steve Clardy
05-30-2006, 2:47 PM
Awesome. Looks like according to the cost of doing this, it would have been cheaper to scrap it.

Ken Garlock
05-30-2006, 3:04 PM
I guess the Navy would rather buy steel from Asia than to salvage what they already own. Sounds pretty stupid to me, but it is just your tax dollars at work.:confused:

Doyle Alley
05-30-2006, 3:29 PM
In order to re-use that steel, we would have had to:

1. Have a ship breaking place in the US - nothing like that exists in the US today. India does most of the ship breaking in the world today.
2. Send the dismembered steel chunks to be re-smelted and rolled into proper sheets.

With the cost of labor in the US, the cost to break it up and then re-smelt it would have far exceeded the cost of buying asian steel. Yea, we could have saved some money buy selling the whole thing to the Indian shipbreaking companies, but the money spent will be more than offset by the tourism dollars from divers and fishermen.

The last big US Navy ship that was converted into an artifical reef was the Speigle Grove. It has already become a meca for divers and contributed significantly to the economy of the Florida Keys.

Joe Pelonio
05-30-2006, 5:08 PM
Anyone in the Bay Area CA, do they still have that big "Mothball Fleet" down there in Suisun Bay? We used to go Striped Bass fishing near them,
it was pretty cool being that close to them, but I always wondered if they would be scrapped or if some of them are actually still useable in case of a major war at sea. Seems like 50-60 years in salt water would take it's toll on the hulls.

Chuck Wintle
05-30-2006, 5:15 PM
I guess the Navy would rather buy steel from Asia than to salvage what they already own. Sounds pretty stupid to me, but it is just your tax dollars at work.:confused:
Ken,
I agree they should have recuperated the steel by selling it to India. Then again why does anyone do anything? How long will it take for the ship to completely rust away?

Doyle Alley
05-30-2006, 5:34 PM
Joe, yes the Navy still maintains two mothboll fleets. One is in California and the other is in Philly. My old ship spent several years in the Philly yard until it was sold to Egypt.

Except in rare circumstances, the ships are not really intended to be recommissioned. In the past, some were recommissioned to serve in Vietnam and Korea, but in today's smaller high-tech navy I doubt they would try that again. We just don't use capital ships (like battle ships and heavy cruisers) like that any more and the older carriers don't have the physical size to handle today's planes. I guess if it came down to a really big war, they could refit some of the auxillary ships like oilers and gator freightors.

The biggest use of the mothball fleet is as a ready source of replacement parts. To protect the components from corrosion, the ships are totally sealed up. I remember several instances where we needed large replacement parts and they were pulled off of the mothball ships of the same class rather than having to have them custom made all over again (you can't exactly buy a bull gear for an FF on Ebay).

Jerry Olexa
05-30-2006, 5:37 PM
I thought this would be a picture of a DJ-20. :) But, thanks for great pics..

Doyle Alley
05-30-2006, 5:42 PM
How long will it take for the ship to completely rust away?

There is a popular dive spot off the coast here that is the remains of a small freighter sunk in 1918. It is mostly collapsed now but is still a viable artifical reef. I haven't dove it in about 10 years, but it was loaded with big fish the last time I saw it. I shot some really nice snapper and grouper on it. The Oriskany will take significantly longer to collapse due to the thickness of the hull. I'm guessing that it will still be a substantial mass 200 years from now.

skip coyne
05-30-2006, 6:39 PM
nice pictures , thanks

I wonder what the small boat on the deck was for , you can see it floating free during the sinking and at the end .
(reminds me of the Mythbusters sinking ship , suction show )

just looked again

The SMALL BOAT on the deck of carrier contains a generator and electronics to set off the explosions. It was designed so this small boat would float free after the carrier sunk!

Keith Outten
05-30-2006, 6:52 PM
Joe, yes the Navy still maintains two mothboll fleets. One is in California and the other is in Philly. My old ship spent several years in the Philly yard until it was sold to Egypt.


Doyle,

I believe the Navy still has a mothball fleet in Virginia in the James River just a couple of miles upstream of Newport News Shipbuilding.

Kevin French
05-30-2006, 6:55 PM
Seems like 50-60 years in salt water would take it's toll on the hulls.

There's a wire and an electric currrent or something like that at the waterline, that helps keep the ship from rusting. It was on the History Channel, "Boneyards"

Mark Rios
05-30-2006, 8:08 PM
Hey....... didn't I see one of those in one of Dev's shop pics? Had the name "Oliver" on it or something like that?




















:D :D :D

Frank Fusco
05-31-2006, 5:11 PM
Kinda sad.:(