Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet: Mothball fleet

Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet Jan. 2017. Before this is a thing of the past I had to get some footage for history. I have grow up seeing the fleet of ship's there to now only a few left.

The reserve fleet storage can be seen in the northern portion of San Francisco Bay, CA. Only a small portion of vessels currently remain with the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet. "In January 2016, the Department of Transportation and MARAD have officially announced the fleet closure in February 2017. All remaining ships will be sold at auction or scrapped."

[warrensmith]

As a kid in the early 60's I can remember the miles and miles of ships anchored there. From Suisun Bay all the way up to Rio Vista. As the ship building and Navy has moved from the Bay Area, so has the mothball fleet. That was the fun part of making a trip to Sacramento back in the 60's, to see the rows and rows and rows of ships there. Now, its just some navigation markers to remember them by. Where once the ships that had fought in WWII were stored, such as submarines, jeep carriers, destroyers, LST's, crusiers and a battleship or two, along with the indispensable utility, repair, resupply, hospital, Liberty, and Victory Ships. All standing silently waiting the call to serve again. Ships from all services, Navy, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, Army, NOAA, and a deep sea mining ship, that only mined a sunken submarine. We watched as one by one, those gray ladies were pulled, and most, without ceremony, were towed away, and their names to never to be spoken again. A few went to be preserved for the children of those who had served so they could visit and be awed by steel their parents has served in. While most went to be remade into other tools, to sever in different ways again. We watched as the nature of the feet changed from WWII, to the cold war, to Vietnam, and now finally, only the service dock and memories of the ships that had been stored there remains.

[scarpia]

The larger vessel in the beginning of this video is one of 17 LASH (Lighter Aboard Ship) ships made by the Avondale Yards in New Orleans. I sailed as Radio Operator on the SS Austral Lightning and SS Delta Mar in the late 70's early 80's. They carried 60 foot barges that were lowered off the stern into the water then towed into port. The idea was to service ports that were too small for large container ships and/or carry cargo too big for containers. While on the Lightning, I made two voyages to the South Pacific from California. The Delta Mar made 6 week round trip voyages to South America from NOLA. I was R/O on the 'Mar for four years. The America flagged vessels were turned over to the Maritime Administration to be refitted as shown in this video or scrapped. The SS Delta Mar was renamed as SS Cape Farewell. One of the 17 original LASH ships was operated by a German company and was lost in the North Atlantic. These were very large dry cargo ships, 900+ feet long and drew 38 feet fully loaded.

[larrybaxter]

I grew up duck hunting in the marsh next to the reserve fleet in the late 1970s and early 80s. You are right, back then there were 80 to 100 ships - most of them WWII freighters and mine sweepers. I remember there was one row of 4 ships (freighters I think) the view of which would line up perfectly into one (masts, tower, booms, etc.) as you passed by it on the highway. And, for a time, the "Glomar" was also anchored there. This was an interesting ship built by Howard Hughes for the CIA and used to raise a soviet nuclear submarine in 1974 (according to the book "A matter of Risk") .

[wfwillis]

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.

[SkyStepDrones]

Nice work brother! I have this location on my next-to-film list. Appreciate the footage

[elliottmanning]

So sad to see all this history lost forever...

[NinersLyphe]

There are all kinds of flight restrictions in the area. Did you get permission? Me and a friend were thinking about it but chickened out after seeing all signs.

[rl]

Sad to see these old ladies all huddled together, trying to hide from the breakers....

[forrestpittman]

I agree it is sad to see these great old ships just go to ruin. I personally don''t feel that there is any such thing as truly obsolete. That has been a misnomer proclaimed by merchants to get people to buy something new, I still have my old 1936 chevrolet two door sedan and like it as well as something new. Funny though I have found many things designed into the old things deliberately designed with a short life. Even our old ships have some of those fetures, but one thing all ships have is a well designed hull. My thinking if the electronics and support equipment os old and really obsolete go into the ship, strip out the outdatedd equipment, update the designs, and save the ship. That is a hell of a lot cheeper than building a brand new ship from the ground up. Instead of just letting it float until it sinks or truly becomes scrap. Why not rebuild these retired ships as viable test beds for modern laser, j rail guns, large calaber galtlin guns, much bigger than what is now on most ships, Completely outfit one old ship with these ideas including rockets, strip off the old armemt and really update it with computer controlled systems that run like the computer games which are so much faster than mussel power swinging a gun with a man. There is no such thing as cant, but the bean counters want to say you cant do this and you cant do that, what a line of bull shit. Use what we have and stop wasting our money on just new ships that take years to produce. When it could only be months to outfit a retired ship to like new condition. Think about it. We have this country the best free country in the world, So why not use all our resources to defend it properly. thanks for my two cents worth.

[bigronshobbies]

Pretty cool location and history, nice flight enjoyed.

[richardtompkins]

Need to bring some of these ship back in to service now than there is a shortage even some of the battle ships and lite cruisers.

[pd_]

Good thing that they had taken the USS Iowa out of the fleet. Could've been scrapped

[beachboy]

Nice footage. Where did you takeoff from?

[TXARNGarmyX]

Starting at 0.44 mark is the SS Cape Fear (T-AK 5061) with 75 LASH barges.

[melissaignacio]

Do you have contact information? I'd love to speak with you further. I'm writing my thesis on the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet and this is exactly the stuff I am writing about.

[raymondleggs]

Some of these look like extended and heavily modified liberty/victory ships

[dennisdowney]

ALL GONE BECAUSE ONE RETIRED NAVY OFFICER FROM MAIR ISLAND SAID THE PLACE WAS TO OLD WE DID OUR BEST AND IT WAS GOOD. ONLY WEST COAST NAVY REPAIR.😢

[Dog.soldier]

I believed cape fear was a LASH ship. The lighters facilities ship to shore logistics

[JamesMorano]

Definitely an awesome location. Love those flyovers of the boats. I subbed. Check out some of my videos if you have time. Which drone do you have?