ghost fleet

[tbm3fan]

Never heard anything from Bremerton before hand. Usually there has been word put out that a carrier is going to be leaving and will be open for parts hunting. Oh, well...

[Albany Rifles]

Can someone ID a ship for me? Its at Suisun Bay. Its the vessel at the Southeast which is by itself.

38°04'24.1"N 122°05'23.8"W

What is it? A barracks ship?

I think I used to see it anchored south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis several years ago for several months....the area is often used either to have vessels wait to get into Baltimore or kept there for sort periods of time. I know there are several USNS RORO vessels in Baltimore and wonder if I saw it there at one time as well.

Thanks

[Dazed]

Can someone ID a ship for me? Its at Suisun Bay. Its the vessel at the Southeast which is by itself.

38°04'24.1"N 122°05'23.8"W

What is it? A barracks ship?

I think I used to see it anchored south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis several years ago for several months....the area is often used either to have vessels wait to get into Baltimore or kept there for sort periods of time. I know there are several USNS RORO vessels in Baltimore and wonder if I saw it there at one time as well.

Thanks

Couldn't see what you were referring on Google: Is this it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Bear_(ship)

[Albany Rifles]

No but thanks

I forgot I had a Snip Tool on my computer...DOH!!!

Here it is.

[ChrisV71]

That is Cape Fear (AK-5061), a LASH Barge Carrier.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/13/135061.htm

[Albany Rifles]

Thanks Chris

That's what I thought but wasn't sure.

[Stitch]

No but thanks

I forgot I had a Snip Tool on my computer...DOH!!!

Here it is.


[ATTACH]42104[/ATTACH]

Wow, that's kind of weird; it looks like it's out in the middle of the Bay, not tied up to anything. Is that normal?

As a kid, I remember driving over the old Benicia Bridge and seeing what seemed to my young mind to be HUNDREDS of old ships out there; it looks like they're almost all gone now. I do remember occasionally seeing oil slicks out there, also, but in 1970 that wasn't a big deal!

[tbm3fan]

I can see one mooring line off the stern. Last time we were up there, in early 2013, Cape Fear was outboard in a row of ships. Before that she was outboard the Hornet at pier 3.

[ChrisV71]

I haven't seen a recent map, but it wouldn't surprise me if she had been outboard of Cape Blanco and got moved to that "row" by herself a couple months ago when they had to pull Cape Blanco out of the nest. This is a best guess though.

[ChrisV71]

RIP ex-Rentz (FFG-46)

Sink exercise takes down retired frigate near Guam

By LEON COOK | STARS AND STRIPES
Published: September 14, 2016

A decommissioned guided-missile frigate went down in about 30,000 feet of water Tuesday during a SINKEX drill connected to Valiant Shield exercises underway near Guam.

A number of Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps ships and air squadrons used gunfire and air-to-surface missiles to sink the USS Rentz, which was retired in 2014 after nearly 30 years of service, a Navy statement said.

“This exercise provided an important opportunity for realistic at-sea training with live ordnance in a blue water environment,” Rear Adm. Brian S. Hurley, the U.S. Pacific Fleet Valiant Shield exercise lead, said in the statement. “This event refined our ability to work together seamlessly as a joint force to achieve a very specific training objective.”

Rentz is credited with intercepting 14,000 pounds of cocaine during narcotics operations in 2003, and with the rescue of 90 Ecuadorian citizens from a distressed ship in 2005.

Many servicemembers and veterans shared their sadness about the Rentz’ demise in a Facebook group dedicated to the frigate.

“The Rentz was by far the greatest command I have ever been a part of, and was very good to me,” a commenter said. “Many of my happiest Navy memories transpired within the skin of that ship.”

Former Navy vessels used in sinking exercises undergo rigorous cleaning to minimize environmental impact, and the area where the ship went down is thoroughly surveyed to ensure marine life will not be harmed, the statement said.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, have made efforts in the past to force stricter environmental standards for SINKEX ships. The Environmental Protection Agency determined in 2014 that the exercises do not pose an “unreasonable risk of injury to human health or the environment.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/sink-exe...-guam-1.428943

[surfgun]

I don't think I knew about this former mothball fleet, at The former NAS Green Cove Springs, Florida.
https://abandonedsoutheast.com/2016/07/29/naval-base/

http://jacksonville.com/slideshow/20...rings#slide-10

[elc32955]

Here's some pictures of the Beaumont, TX reserve fleet as of August 1 or so. I was digging around trying to find when the USNS Observation Island was going to be scrapped (if there had been any bids let yet), and ran across this article in the Beaumont Enterprise. 119 pics in the set, the recent pics start about halfway through the set, but most are fairly interesting. My father was an E-7 on the Observation Island back when it launched the first Polaris A-1 missile back in August, 1959 off the coast of Cape Canaveral. After he passed in 2002, I worked with the Military Sealift Command and was able to have him buried at sea from the OI off the coast of Japan. It was ironic, he actually rode the ship for almost an entire year before they were able to put together a combined ceremony with 2 other participants. One was retired USN, and the other a tech rep. that has previously rode the ship.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/ne...er-8972295.php

Thanks
Eric

[tbm3fan]

I do love the pictures where the caption says crews work aboard ships in Beaumont's "reserve fleet." No, I do believe those are active duty pictures and their Navy crews. The most delicious picture is the one showing the Navy crew cooking dinner aboard a mothballed ship.

[ChrisV71]

I think the article is confusing the Marad NDRF Beaumont fleet with the former Navy mothball anchorage at Orange, Tx. Back in the days, Navy mothball fleets would designate one of the mothballed ships to be the headquarters ship for that particular mothball fleet. The maintenance crews lived on the headquarters ship and used them as a barracks, including cooking on them. It's possible that's where the picture of the cooking came from. The others with the helm and engine order telegraph may have been mothballed ships and they were checking the functionality of the equipment. I found it interesting that they kept claiming that Nassau was the oldest ship, when in reality, it's probably in the middle of the pile. (Probably because it looks bad due to her badly deteriorating paint job)

[Archdude]

Has the Independence EX CV 62 left Bremerton yet?