The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
Two more orphaned ships from the James River Reserve Fleet, better known as the "ghost fleet," will be scrapped under recycling contracts announced Monday by the U.S. Maritime Administration.
The Escape, a former Navy rescue ship built in 1942, will be dismantled by Bay Bridge Enterprises, a salvage yard in Chesapeake off the Elizabeth River.
The local yard, with much recent experience breaking down ghost ships, will be paid $115,200 to recycle the Escape. The company is permitted to keep profits from the sale of scrap steel and other metals still aboard the vessel.
The Cape Cod, a former Navy destroyer tender built in 1980, soon will be headed to a scrap yard in Brownsville, Texas. All Star Metals LLC will be paid $328,122 to break apart the 643-foot-long behemoth.
When the two ships leave the mothball fleet located off Fort Eustis in Newport News, they will be the 83rd and 84th vessels to be scrapped since 2001, according to Maritime Administration statistics.
The agency is under a congressional mandate to safely dispose of all obsolete ships in three reserve fleets in Virginia, Texas and California. Officials fear environmental harm if the vessels break open or leak their waste fuels, asbestos, mercury and other toxic materials.
One competing salvage yard, Southern Recycling, based in New Orleans, has questioned the bidding process for the
Escape and Cape Cod. A company representative, Polly Parks, said in an e-mail that the yard would have liked to bid on the ships but did not know they were up for grabs.
The Escape is the more famous of the two vessels. It supported the Project Mercury manned space program in the 1960s and has won several service medals. The Coast Guard also used the ship in the 1950s.
The Cape Cod was built in California and aided Navy ships for 13 years before being shelved in 1995. It has been moored in the ghost fleet since then.
A federal inventory in 2001 indicates that both vessels contain no waste oils and pose little risk of springing a leak as their hulls are still solid.
The ghost fleet has been a maritime and historic landmark in Hampton Roads for decades. Once stretching to Norfolk, it now consists of fewer than 30 ships, lashed together in neat rows in the middle of the James River.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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Scrap fleet
The remaining ships are not classified. You can go to Google Earth and zoom in on them, count them if you like.
The James River
The James River along that part will look very different once all the ships are gone. It is all for the better of everyone and the river.
well then get a plane and fly over them and count them then
Fly over and count them and then reports to us your fact finding mission. Thanks
Bittersweet
My husband and I met on this ship in 1994, a year before they decomissioned it. We have always thought of renewing our vows onboard, but never did. Sad to see it go, but I know it's better for the environment. At least we will always have great memories!!
Crazy
Cape Cod isn't even 30 years old. Hope we never get into a conflict where in-theater repairs are required.
How may left?
Every time these areticles are printed, someone asks "How many ships are left in the James?" I want to know the answer to that also. Why does the Pilot never report that info? Please don't tell me it's classified. You can fly over the ships and count them. Commericial air traffic flies over the James all the time.
22?
In January 2001, before they started disposing of them, there were 107 ships. If these are the 84th & 85th ships to leave, then that leaves 22.
I mean 23
After re-reading, I see they are the 83rd and 84th, so I mean 23 ships left.