The Scoop Deck

The disappearing ghosts

January 22nd, 2010 | Environment Historical Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing

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The battleship Iowa, seen here with Task Force 38 at sea in the Pacific in 1944, is one of the ships illegally contaminating a bay in Calfornia as part of the rotting "ghost fleet." // NavHistHerCom

Scoop Deck gets a sick feeling sometimes when contemplating the circumstances of the battleship Iowa, a naval superstar moored at the end of a row of rust-buckets in the grandly named National Defense Reserve Fleet — aka the ghost fleet — at Suisun Bay, Calif. It’s hard not to connect the ship with another legendary mariner, Edmond Dantès, wrongly exiled as he rotted away in the infamous Château d’If.

The plight of the Iowa was driven home again this week when a federal judge ruled Thursday that the ships in the ghost fleet are disintegrating so badly they violate federal and state environmental laws. The case isn’t over yet — the state of California and environmental groups want to force the Maritime Administration, which oversees the ghost fleets in California, Virginia and Texas, to remove the ships. For now, though, the judge’s ruling confirms that the contaminants seeping off the old ships are hurting the bay.

You can see the full story here.

There may eventually be a silver lining for the Iowa, which planners in California hope to convert into a museum ship… although, as we’ve written before, that can be awfully tricky.

In the meantime, because this will be a highlight on any future tour, here is a photograph of Iowa’s bathtub — the only one installed on a U.S. warship. The Navy put it there for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s convenience when he took the ship to the Cairo and Tehran Conferences in 1943.

Permalink | January 22nd, 2010

Comments

  1. Sea Links « New Wars Says:
    January 29th, 2010 at 6:04 am

    [...] plight of the Battleship Iowa. (Scoop [...]

  2. Martin Aller-Stead Says:
    September 10th, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    The IOWA is one of those large pieces of mighty magic that only happen once or twice in a century at sea … I think in the 20th. C it was HMS Warspite and USS Iowa. Restoration as a museum ship would be costly, true, but I think the right thing to do … stories have to be told, the ship IS a story in herself … and artifacts as large as she is cannot be re-constructed to the same effect, ever.

    My Mum served with the USN in WW II, at the Mare island hospital (Occupational Therapist and Physiotherapist). As a US navy Vet I am sure she’d have loved to see a few older ships saved to tell the stories. Both my parents were navy (father was RCNVR, on loan to the RN), and I early learnt the values of tolerance and teaching, and keeping a gentle but mighty fist available, if required.

    I sincerely hope the USS Iowa is restored to museum quality.

    Regards from Toronto!

    Martin Aller-Stead

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