US Navy aircraft carrier headed to the scrapyard after being sold for a cent | Hacker News Reader

US Navy aircraft carrier headed to the scrapyard after being sold for a cent

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30 pointsrobgibbons16 comments

If the scrapyard (vs. the U.S. Navy) is paying for the ~70,000 ton, 325-meter-long former aircraft carrier to be towed ~16,000 miles, from Washington (state) to Texas - it's too big for the Panama Canal - then they are actually paying quite a few million dollars for it.

This ship also is 48 years old, so it will have asbestos in all kinds of places (probably even more so than a civilian ship would. Preventing the spreading of fire is fairly essential on a warship) Separating that from the valuable metals can be costly.

It was in service for 48 years. It was built in the late 1950's, so it is even much older.

I wish this were being turned into a museum ship like the USS Midway. It's unique since it's the only surviving member of it's class. I guess it wasn't notable enough. Hopefully the Nimitz will become a museum when it is retired.

List of US Navy aircraft carriers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_t...

Apparently it needs decontamination and renovation to become a museum ship, and not enough money was raised to fund that. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/aircraft-carrier-sold-1-cent...

One would hope so, but it's generally thought that removing the nuclear reactors require so much structural demolition that it wouldn't be in any shape to be a museum afterwards. The USS Enterprise CVN-65 is the first nuclear aircraft carrier ever to be decommissioned and it's one of the most famous. But it's thought to be impractical to become a museum in its entirety. (Enterprise does have 8 smaller reactors compared to Nimitz 2, so not entirely comparable)

Interesting to look at the various satellite map sources of the ship breaking yard. On Bing/Google Maps you can see two carriers in different levels of disassembly. On DDG you can see one with most of the deck still installed.

Bing: https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=6054227b-9030-4624-9ed6-e3540...

Google: https://goo.gl/maps/CXtTFMzjvUav3U6z7

DDG: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=25.970727153134153%2C+-97.3...

If you're near San Francisco and think it's a shame this isn't becoming a museum ship, I'd encourage you to visit and support the Jeremiah O'Brien, one of two still-floating Liberty ships (WWII cargo transports). It's a much smaller ship but still needs >$1 million every so often for drydock inspection and maintenance: https://www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/pages/how-you-can-help

No affiliation, I've just enjoyed visiting a couple times. If you show up on the right day you can wander round the engine room while it's running!

And the (conventionally-powered aircraft carrier) USS Hornet, "welded to the pier" in Alameda, just across the Bay Bridge (and south a bit) from SF.

The Hornet was the recovery ship for the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969.

https://uss-hornet.org/

The scrapyard is only a few miles west of SpaceX Boca Chica:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/SpaceX+Launch+Facility/@25...

Ok don't scream at me, but when I see these all I can think of is floating apartment complexes. Especially in places that are being affected by higher water levels and where zoning/lack of space makes more housing impractical. Plus I'd love one just for me...I know it would cost the Earth to reno.....but still all that space and being able to move wherever you want...you would have your own mobile island.

Its a shame its getting scrapped.

I don't think any nuclear carrier will ever become museum ships because they need to be torn apart to decommission the reactor.

Their sheer size is also likely a huge issue to make them a museum ship. It's about twice the tonnage and crew/compliment as the USS Iowa class museum ships we have.

really burying the lede with the quote about a race riot (more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Kitty_Hawk_riot).

Different topic so I wouldn't call it burying the lede. Still extremely interesting

What I wanted to know immediately was whether this was a nuclear reactor-powered ship. It wasn't. Decommissioning a nuke ship must be harder.

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