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The Ghost Ships of Suisun Bay


fesm_ndt

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Maybe our navy could borrow some......................

 

We couldn't afford to run them even if wanted to. That's why we're selling off warships as fast as we can ....

 

Andy

Edited by andym
Typo!
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In 1987 when I was working deliveries of yatchs to and from the US mainland out to the British Virgin Islands I was treated to an interesting experience.

 

We had just gone through a storm and I had been at the helm for an extended period of time. It was early morning and I became aware of a vessel bearing the lights displayed by a tug. She was gaining on us ever so slightly and was only visible at times because of the huge troughs we and she would disappear into.

 

After a couple of hours it was obvious as daylight broke that the strange formation of lights behind the tug were two ships of a ghostly grey colour in tow by the same tug. At this time I made contact on ch 16 and switched to a working channel.

 

The skipper was very chatty and we talked for nearly an hour as he slowly came aboeam and then overtook us. He was bound from the Hudson River near new York to some foreign parts, I think Taiwan, with two WW2 Liberty ships to be cut up for scrap.

 

He had a huge steel hawser between him and the fist ship with a concrete block part way along it to keep the bight low and the same between the two Liberty ships. There was a crew of two on each ship under tow, the rudders locked ahead and the men were equipped with liferafts and VHF and cooking kit and basic amenities. Not exactly a plum cruise job.

 

Anyhow he gave us the latest weather reports and eventually disappeared over the horizon.

 

Really quite the sad sight on such a grey morning.

 

R

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I was thinking about this last night as would have been something daft I would have done as a teenager. But it is an interesting risk they took and still are.

 

past tense - evading security to get on warships clearly marked dont do so and with security patrols. In the US you can generally shoot tresspassers

 

present tense - they have admitted to a crime so in reality I presume they can be indicted for the crime on multiple issues. They have also I would say embarrassed the security teams and who ever the person is in charge of said security.

 

In the states it is game over if you get a federal indictment on your record.

 

Great photography though with some really neat quirky tricks

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