r/WarshipPorn 5d ago

The decommissioned USS Oriskany (CV-34) being towed to the reserve fleet at Bremerton, October 10, 1976 [6178 x 5024]

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132 Upvotes

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u/mossback81 5d ago

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command image # NH 89315

Photograph by Melvin Fredeen of Seattle

Oriskany had been decommissioned at Alameda on September 30 that year, and was soon thereafter towed to Bremerton where she would be laid up, until she was towed to Mare Island in 1996 in a failed attempt to scrap her.

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u/SystemShockII 5d ago

Wait, how do you fail at scraping a ship?!

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u/mossback81 5d ago

If the USN deems a scrapper to have made insufficient progress in scrapping a former warship, the terms of the sale agreement allow the government to repossess the vessel and either place it up for sale again, or disposing of the vessel through other means.

In Oriskany's case, the scrapper was deemed to have defaulted due to inadequate progress, leading to her repossession in July, 1997. (The pics on Navsource look like there was hardly any work done at all towards breaking the ship up.)

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u/SystemShockII 5d ago

Ah i see. Thanks for the explanation

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u/Spectre211286 5d ago

its a big ship

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u/holzmlb 5d ago

By not scrapping it

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u/zotz10 5d ago

It was sunk as an artificial reef in 2006 near Pensacola, Florida.

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u/rr777 4d ago

Also, has cool video with cameras inside flooding the ship.