The
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
maintains a number of its
ship
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...
s as part of a
reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and sufficiently working as to be reactivated quickly in an emergency.
In some cases (for instance, at the outset of the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
), many ships were successfully reactivated at a considerable savings in time and money. The usual fate of ships in the reserve fleet, though, is to become too old and obsolete to be of any use, at which point they are sold for
scrapping or are scuttled in weapons tests.
In rare cases, the general public may intercede for ships from the reserve fleet that are about to be scrapped – usually asking for the Navy to donate them for use as
museum ships, memorials, or
artificial reefs.
Administration
In November 1976, the controlling organization was the Inactive Ship Division of the Naval Ship Systems Command. As of 2011, the controlling organization actually appears to be the Inactive Ships Management Office of the Program Executive Officer - Ships,
Naval Sea Systems Command,
Portsmouth, Virginia.
Merchant ships held in reserve are managed as part of the separate
National Defense Reserve Fleet within MARAD (
US Maritime Administration). Several of its sites, such as at
Suisun Bay in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, are also used to store regular Navy ships.
Maintenance categories
Ships placed in the reserve fleets are categorized depending on priority, funding and the planned disposition.
Category B
Ships in this category are prioritized over the other categories when it comes to maintenance and funding. They are retained for possible future mobilization and will receive updates and upgrades as funding permits.
Category C
These are ships that will be maintained as-is; meaning no updates or improvements unless funding becomes available after that assigned for category B ships has been exhausted.
Category D
Temporary state pending planned usage by the Navy, will be maintained as-is.
Category X
Ships stricken from the Naval Vessel Register awaiting disposal. Receives no maintenance except ships on donation hold, which undergo dehumidification and
cathodic protection.
Category Z
This category is for nuclear-powered ships and related support ships pending disposal.
History
Around 1912, the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and the Pacific Reserve Fleet were established as reserve units with still operating ships, but on a greatly reduced schedule.
After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, with hundreds of ships no longer needed by a peacetime navy, each fleet consisted of a number of groups corresponding to storage sites, each adjacent to a shipyard for easier reactivation. For example, was underway for
Green Cove Springs,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, on 11 April 1945. ''Brock'' arrived there on 13 April 1945, and joined the Florida Group, 16th Fleet, which later became the Florida Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Many of the deactivated Second World War merchant vessels were of a class called the
Liberty Ship
Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...
which was a mass-produced ocean-going transport used primarily in the convoys going to/from the U.S., Europe, and Russia. These Liberty Ships were also used as the navy's support vessel for its fleet of warships and to ferry forces across the Pacific and Atlantic. It was a race between how fast the U.S. could build these ships and how fast the
German U-Boats could sink them, and the Liberty Ship was significant in maintaining the beleaguered
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Most of these Liberty Ships when deactivated were put into "mothball fleets" strategically located around the coasts of the U.S, or sold into commercial service. They began to be deactivated and scrapped in the early 1970s.
Atlantic Reserve Fleet
Vice Admirals
Herbert F. Leary and
Thomas C. Kinkaid served as Commanders, Sixteenth Fleet, after World War II. Sixteenth Fleet later became the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
The groups of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet were at
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Charleston,
Green Cove Springs, Florida
Green Cove Springs is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2000 census. As of 2010, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 6,908.
The city is named after the portio ...
,
New London
New London may refer to:
Places United States
*New London, Alabama
*New London, Connecticut
*New London, Indiana
*New London, Iowa
*New London, Maryland
*New London, Minnesota
*New London, Missouri
*New London, New Hampshire, a New England town
** ...
,
MOTBY/
New York Harbor,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, and
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
.
Pacific Reserve Fleet
The Nineteenth Fleet became the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
The groups of the Pacific Reserve Fleet were at
Alameda,
Bremerton
Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...
,
Columbia River,
Long Beach,
Mare Island
Mare Island ( Spanish: ''Isla de la Yegua'') is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the ...
,
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
Stockton,
Tacoma, and
Olympia, Washington (Budd Inlet).
List of current USN reserve fleets
James River Reserve Fleet
The
James River Reserve Fleet consists of six decommissioned
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
auxiliaries and
warships anchored in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
's
James River near
Newport News
Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...
.
The fleet originally consisted of about 60 ships, most of which were gradually towed away for scrapping.
As of 1 July 2014, the Reserve Fleet consisted of the following vessels (AK = Auxiliary Cargo Ship, AGS = Auxiliary Surveying Ship):
*—training use
*—training use
*—logistics support
*—logistics support
*—training vessel. Prior to being mothballed and re-purposed to a training vessel, from January 1981 to 12 September 2012, it served as a
NASA recovery ship
The NASA recovery ships are two ships, the and the , that were tasked with retrieving spent Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) following the launch of Space Shuttle missions. Although owned by NASA, the ships were operated by Space Flight Operations c ...
for the
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...
's
solid rocket boosters
A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a large solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and space shuttle, have used SRBs to giv ...
after launch and was used to transport the
external fuel tank from the production facility to
Cape Canaveral's and
Kennedy Space Center's pre-launch assembly locations. MV Freedom Star Call sign: KRFB was also loaned out during this time to
NOAA for their oceanic research, when not in use for space launch parts transportation and/or post launch SBR recovery missions
Wikimedia Commons Gallery of images of MV Freedom Star
Suisun Bay
A similar fleet, the National Defense Reserve Fleet, is anchored in
Suisun Bay near
Benicia, California, and has similarly been reduced. This location is known for hosting the ''
Glomar Explorer
''GSF Explorer'', formerly USNS ''Hughes Glomar Explorer'' (T-AG-193), was a deep-sea drillship platform built for Project Azorian, the secret 1974 effort by the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division to recove ...
'' after its recovery of portions of
Soviet Submarine K-129 during the
Cold War before its subsequent reactivation as a minerals exploration ship.
Beaumont
The
Beaumont Reserve Fleet, anchored in the
Neches River near
Beaumont, Texas, contains a number of transport ships.
Former fleets
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Boston
The South Boston Naval Annex was a United States Navy shipyard annex located in South Boston, Massachusetts, South Boston. It was the annex of the Boston Navy Yard, and was operational from the 1920 to 1974, when it was closed along with the mai ...
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Green Cove Springs also called
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Florida #REDIRECT Naval Air Station Lee Field
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Florida
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Green Cove Springs Group
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Florida ...
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Hudson River
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, New London
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Orange
United States Naval Station Orange, later Texas Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet and US Naval Reserve Orange was major United States Navy shipyard in Orange, Texas on the Sabine River. The shipyard opened on August 24, 1940, to manage the construct ...
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Wilmington
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk
USS ''Albany'' (CG-10) laid up at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1983
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk was a part of the United States Navy reserve fleets, also called a ''mothball fleet'', and was used to store the many surplus ships after Worl ...
then a NISMF
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Charleston
Charleston Naval Shipyard (formerly known as the Charleston Navy Yard) was a U.S. Navy ship building and repair facility located along the west bank of the Cooper River, in North Charleston, South Carolina and part of Naval Base Charleston.
H ...
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Philadelphia now a NISMF site
*
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, New York
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Astoria also called
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River
Naval Air Station Tongue Point is a former United States Navy air station which was located within the former U.S. Naval Station Tongue Point, Astoria, Oregon.
In 1919, the United States Congress approved the construction of a submarine and destro ...
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Stockton
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Hunters Point #REDIRECT Hunters Point Naval Shipyard
The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city.
Originally, Hunters Poi ...
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Olympia
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Mare Island
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Alameda
docked in former Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Alameda
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Alameda was a part of the United States Navy reserve fleets, also called a ''mothball fleet'', that was used to store the many surplus ships after World War II. The Pacific ...
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Bremerton
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Diego
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Long Beach
The Long Beach Naval Shipyard (Long Beach NSY or LBNSY), which closed in 1997, was located on Terminal Island between the city of Long Beach and the San Pedro district of Los Angeles, approximately 23 miles south of the Los Angeles International ...
*
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Tacoma
The Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation (also operating as Todd Pacific) was an American corporation which built escort carriers, destroyers, cargo ships and auxiliaries for the United States Navy and merchant marine during World War II i ...
*
Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facilities
A Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) is a facility owned by the U.S. Navy as a holding facility for decommissioned naval vessels, pending determination of their final fate. All ships in these facilities are inactive, but some are still on the Naval Vessel Register, while others have been struck from that Register.
Philadelphia
The
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility holds several dozen inactive warships, including the aircraft carrier ,
Ticonderoga class cruisers,
Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate
The ''Oliver Hazard Perry'' class is a class of guided-missile frigates named after U.S. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the naval Battle of Lake Erie. Also known as the ''Perry'' or FFG-7 (commonly "fig seven") class, the warships we ...
s, and numerous supply ships.
Bremerton
The
Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, located next to
Bremerton, Washington, hosts, among its other ships two dozen decommissioned submarines, several frigates, and numerous supply ships. It is the former home of the nuclear cruiser , which was scrapped.
Pearl Harbor
The Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, holds logistic support ships and amphibious transport dock ships.
Ready Reserve Force
*The
Ready Reserve Force (RRF) is a subset of ships in MARAD's National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF). Ready Reserve Force supports the rapid worldwide deployment of U.S. military forces.
maritime.dot.gov, Ready Reserve Force
/ref>
See also
* , a U.S. Air Force equivalent
References
External links
Records of the Reserve Fleet
Satellite photo of the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet
Adventures in the Abandoned Ships of Suisun Bay
Satellite photo of the Neches River Reserve Fleet
Satellite photo of the James River Reserve Fleet
Satellite photo of the Puget Sound Reserve Fleet
{{US Navy navbox
Reserve
Reserve fleets