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The Navy’s largest fleet is one which remains at dockside, tied up and unmanned, its guns and magazines empty. This is the Reserve Fleet— more popularly called the mothball fleet. The fleet numbers some 600 ships dispersed in six groups: at Bremerton, Washington; Mare Island and San Diego, California; Norfolk, Virginia; Orange, Texas; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (The Mare Island Group includes an additional berthing site at Stockton, California.) The Philadelphia Group in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard—with 122 ships in storage—is atypical portion of the mothball fleet.
Philadelphia berths a variety of ship types including three of the Navy’s four remaining battleships. The two dreadnoughts shown here are the New Jersey (BB-62) and Iowa (BB-61). Nearby rests the Wisconsin (BB-64). The Navy s fourth battleship, the famed Missouri (BB-63), is moored at Bremerton. The Navy has assigned a high readiness priority to the four battleships, in large Part because of the potential fire-support value of their 16-inch guns in an amphibious assault. Like other ships in the Reserve Fleet, should the need arise, lhe battleships could be sent to sea much faster and at considerably less cost than new ships could be constructed. Five hundred eighty officers and enlisted men tend the Philadelphia-berthed ships, ensuring they are kept ready. Above, a sailor checks the lines to the carrier Tarawa (AVT-12, originally CV-40).
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Just as destroyer-type ships make up the largest portion of the active fleet, they are the most numerous type in the mothball fleet, including the group at Philadelphia. Mothballed ships are coated with preservatives inside and out. The natural electrolytic action of salt water on exposed metal can corrode and weaken the ship hulls beneath the water line. This problem is eliminated by cathodic protection. Anodes are suspended in the water near each ship to neutralize electrochemical action. Frequent underwater inspections, like that above on the cruiser Fargo (CL-106), further ensure hull integrity.
iiiuiuurtiicu snips requires low relative humidity to prevent mildew, rot, and corrosion. The usual method of humidity control is to pass air through dehumidifiers which contain drying agents and recirculate it, using the ship’s ventilation and fire main systems as well as flexible hose, like that being repaired at right.
Protective coverings and sealed huts are used to preserve exposed equipment of the mothballed ships. Miscellaneous equipment which is too large to store below decks, such as radar antennas, is kept in sealed huts like the one at left on the destroyer John Hood (DD-65 5). Behind the hut can be seen an "igloo,” a sealed covering which is protecting a twin 3-inch gun mount. At top, a sailor repairs a handy billy pump on the seaplane tender Chandeleur (AV-10), the partly mothballed headquarters ship for the Philadelphia Group. Above are styrofoam balls which are placed in the ships to warn if an unmanned ship’s compartment is flooding. The balls are weighted on top and flip over when they begin to float. When upside down they activate a mercury switch which turns on warning lights on the ship’s superstructure. Below, in a warehouse ashore, careful records are kept on the equipment and status of each mothballed ship.
Special ship types require special preservation methods. Above, a preservative is sprayed on the flight deck of the escort carrier Siboney (AKV-12, formerly CVE-112) during routine maintenance. At right is the aircraft carrier Antietam (CVS-36). Her hangar deck is empty of planes and crisscrossed with dehumidifying ducts. The saving of old ships has paid off many times in U. S. history. For example, more than 500 ships and service craft, were reactivated in the early 1950s to serve in the Korean War. Some of those recalled are still mainstays of today’s active Fleet, among them four attack and eight antisubmarine support carriers. Additional ships shed their mothballs and rejoined the active Fleet during the Suez crisis in 1956, the Berlin crisis in 1961, and the Cuban quarantine in 1962.
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