I’d never heard of the mothball fleet, so I wentlooking. Yep, there sure are a bunch of ships stored there.
So, what makes a ship worth mothballing? On Google maps, I count 59 ships over 200ft, another 7 that look to be under 200ft, and 1 that looks like a barge.
I know nothing about Navy ships. Is the collection in Suisun Bay ships that can’t be sold? Aren’t worth taking apart? Might be useful at some later date?
My guess would be a ship is worth mothballing if the cost of storage + reactivation is less than that of building a new ship with similar capabilities. There’s no doubt a time element involved as well.
Building a new warship involves a tremendous expense and no doubt navies are reluctant to scrap ships which, although not needed right now, could conceviably be used sometime in the future.
Looking at the wiki articles I think that the fleets at Puget sound, and possibly Philadelphia would constitute the second largest navy in the world if they were all fully reactivated.
Also, some ships are difficult and costly to break down, because they may contain hazardous materials. It may be cheaper and more practical to leave them in one piece, particularly if they are stable.
There’s also the option of using them as target ships. Watching an old mothballed destroyer get split in two by a Mk 48 torpedo was pretty impressive.
One of the more famous ships in Suisun Bay fleet, The USS Iowa, has been “de-mothballed” (?) and is currently berthed at Port Richmond. They’re doing the preliminary hazmat clean-up in preparation to send it down to Los Angeles to become a museum. You can only tour the front deck, but it’s still pretty neat.
What makes a ship worth mothballing? Will there be a need of her in the future? It is cheaper to mothball than to build new. What is the condition of the ship. In 1970 the Maritime Academy recieved a ship that had been laid up for a number of years to replace the old training ship, and used it for about 20 years.
Another major consideration is what is scrap metel going for?
Mothballed ships compartments are filled with nitrogen gas. That pushes out any oxygen and prevents rusting. Inspection teams have to wear breathing gear inside the ship.
I know it is not a Naval fleet, but the USA had a mothballed merchant navy prior to WW 2. The age and limitations of these vessels was one reason that FDR initiated progress towards Liberty ships.
(I have no cite for this- it was on a doco I saw once.)
Back in the 50’s and maybe into the early 60’s, there were merchant ships in anchored storage on the Hudson River. Don’t remember the exact location but it was perhaps 30-50 miles North of NYC. I say anchored rather than mothballed because they didn’t appear to be preserved or covered such as they are these days.