Note: Be sure to read the comments in part a, esp the very long and personal one by Bill W.
Of those vessels, now there are none This plaque remains just off 9W, right across the river from Indian Point.
Two of the vessels huddled there for awhile (probably longer than their actual period of service) included sister vessels USS Wakefield (AP-21) aka SS Manhattan and USS Mount Vernon (AP-22) aka SS Washington. Both were older sisters (by two decades) of United States Lines’ SS United States.
Here’s an aerial view of the ghosts, quite visible in my estimation at the time the foto was taken.
Many thanks to Harold Tartell and Joseph Herbert for these enlightening fotos. And thanks for the comments some of you have sent in; I’m eager to hear more and see more fotos, possibly of these vessels being moved downriver to the American scrapyards. Read this article from Sea Classics on the impetus to build and then maintain these vessels.
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November 10, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Dennis Willard
i remember seeing these ship and hearing the comments made about them being used for grain storage while going past them on family car trips when i was a kid . . .
i also remember quite a few of them being dismantled at american shipbuilding down in south kearny . . .
November 10, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Daniel Meeter
Ja, I remember them too, from the back seat of the car, while driving past in my childhood. You really did feel like there was some power over them, some “mana”.
November 10, 2010 at 9:24 pm
John van der Doe
I do remember the ones who came in port to load or discharged their cargo after the war was over. One stand out in my memory the “Dante” when she sailed into port, a slight list over SB and thick black smoke coming out of her stack.
Later on board the biggest mess I have ever seen in my life, but still a beautiful sight.
November 11, 2010 at 9:12 am
Deb dePeyster
My father served in the Merchant Marine in WWII. On family trips to Long Island to visit relatives, we would detour over to 9W to see the mothball fleet. It was special to him; I could feel it, even though I was only 6 years old or so. I still remember the first time I saw them – what seemed like miles of gray ships. Over the years there were fewer and fewer, and it was a disappointment when they were gone.