A nice still 45 F morning here with mild temperature expected all day long. A 40% chance of rain is forecast over the next couple of days.
dave1949 said:
I missed a good deal on a used Aircraft Carrier, the USS Forrestal sold for 1 penny yesterday to scrappers. It was decommissioned in 1993.
Dave, do you know the details? I was at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) in Phila. during the mid-'70s. We sold dozens of old ships including the USS Randolph and USS Essex carriers. The Randolph sold for $1.2 million. Many Fletcher Class Destroyers sold for $150k to $160k. I just cannot imagine the circumstances that would make the Defense Department sell one of those ships for $1. I'd love to know more details. However, I'd can see them selling the Forrestal to some Naval Memorial to be restored and kept as a museum for the $1 tag. Surely even the US Gov't has not lost it's mind so much as to realize the huge profits in scrap on an aircraft carrier when sold for several million dollars. Heck, if you went around a carrier and scraped off all the brass placards on the bulkheads and decks, you'd have a couple of shipping containers full of brass just from doing that.
I'd like to convert old US Submarines into luxury yachts... I'd love to buy an old one of those...
David
David, a non-combatant vessel such as a tugboat or garbage skowl can be repurposed. In the Caribbean, there are lots of those WWII service vehicles being used as freight haulers between islands. However, any combatant ship must have its keel broken within a specified amount of time. Also, if the ships have guns, one of the first things a scrapper has to do is cut the barrel and breech so the gun is completely disabled. Those are called "condition of sale" items and are strictly adhered to.
At the NISMF Phila, I was the Assistant Disposal Officer for a few months while on limited duty because of a health issue. We sold many proud ships, and I walked through the great old battleships like the USS Iowa and USS Wisconsin. It was a humbling experience to walk through these ships sitting beside the pier with their boilers cold and the whole interior of the ship preserved by pumping in dehumidified air. I'll never forget that feeling of walking around on the inside of a 16" gun mount that was the size of house.
EDIT: I can't believe it. It's really true that they
sold it to scrappers for $1. Somewhere there was a huge screwup. With the cost of materials and the ease of scrapping one of these vessels, the company winning that bid will have a huge windfall profit. Somebody somewhere is just brain-dead.
