Mothball Trips
In the San Pablo Bay of northern California, the U.S. Navy parks some of its decommissioned ships. Chip Carter and his mariner group occasionally venture out there to "trice up", as he described it to me, some of the newer arrivals. I don't know, I sometimes think there is mischief afloat among these mariners. Just sayin'. Here is a recap of an email that Chip sent me.
11/26/2008
Hi
This is the second time I am trying to send this. I spent an hour typing this stuff and when I went to send it the program crashed. I am sorry for all the foul language I used when it happened. I had to reboot but I wanted to just give it the boot.
This last trip to the Mothball Fleet is supposed to be our last, but I believe I said that once before. And I think there might be another trip coming up after Thanksgiving. These pictures are from 2 trips - 1 trip to explore and procure and 1 trip to pack out and crane off and haul away. We took mostly linen goods - towels, sheets, blankets - and brooms and tools and other stuff. I had to drive my big shop truck to be able to haul it all. And it was a warm day. We had to carry the stuff up a few ladders (Navy talk for steep stairways) from dark rooms and hallways. That part wasn't as much fun because we had to go from flashlight vision to bright sun with every trip. It's hard to climb ladders with your hands full while holding a flashlight. But we still had fun.
We had a special guest with us on the first trip. It was Michael Bouyer. Don't recognize his name?? That's ok, you shouldn't. He has a production company here in Vallejo and he films "What's Up Vallejo" and produces DVD's like the ones from the Downtown Celebration that I sent you a link to before. He is filming our car club, the Boyz Under The Hood, telling the history of the club and what we do in the community and filming a documentary about the Mighty Midget. He hopes to sell the Midget program to the History Channel. I call him when we have an event with the cars or the ship. He turned out to be a good joke teller and kept us entertained.
I finally got Christine Chrysogelos email address. Don't bother checking the spelling of her name. I already did. I couldn't spell it in high school so why would I know how to spell it now. Hope it is correct in the yearbook or I'm gonna look pretty stupid after saying that. Her email address is the one in the CC section. I also included some of my friends and relatives in this email so if you see a name that you don't recognize don't worry about it and don't look it up in the yearbook.
Miss Coni, Queen of the class, has directed me to tell you all happy Thanksgiving. Well, maybe she didn't tell me to say that but I know she would have if I had seen her. I try to follow her directions and orders even before she gives them.
That is all
Chip Carter
happy to be the servant to Miss Coni (she makes me say that).
On the left is Michael the photographer. On the right is
Bill, the "owner" of the Mighty Midget. He is actually a
professor at SF State and has a PHD. He retired this year
at age 83 only because Gov Arnold cut the budget and
his job. The Mighty Midget Veterans organization refers
to him as Admiral Bill because he was instrumental in
getting the Midget from the Royal Thailand Navy.
I just call him Admiral Dr. Bill. The guy in the center
is his son Tom.
I talked our water taxi pilot into going past the USS Iowa
so Michael could take pictures of it for his documentary.
Michael carries a few cameras and Tom packs
a couple of flashlights.
We found an Officers Mess on the Mt. Washington that
had portholes for light to enter so we chowed there.
The blue ice chest holds my lunch. I haven't lost my
appetite yet.
Taken from the Bridge of the Mt. Washington looking at
the Benicia Bridge. Can't figure out why I wanted to
enclose this picture but I'll remember right after sending
this. This ship was mothballed in 2005 so everything is
fairly new on it. It even had a bunch of computers on it.
I am going to ask them if I can take all the computer
stuff and give it to the Vet's Home in Yountville.
In the engine room about 5 decks down below water level.
I wanted to see if the picture would come out in the complete
darkness. I liked the pretty colored gages, alarms, and
wheels. Here's a test - which one is the Clinometer? And
what is a Clinometer? When you find it you will notice that
it is a simple one.
Admiral Dr. Bill on the Exxon Gettysburg, the ship I call
the SS Rust Bucket. Yes that's a pile of rust he is
standing on.
Taken on our second trip to remove the stuff. Notice that
the bay is smooth as glass on a hot day. Pictured is the
floating drydock containing the Sea Shadow.
I aim a big gun at a suspected thief. It was really just
a big fire nozzle and the thief was one of us.
This ship carried an extra propeller on the deck. You never
know when you might need a spare. I wanted to take it home
with me but it is probably too heavy for the crane to lift.
It is solid bronze or brass maybe and is probably worth about
$10,000 at the scrap yard. Notice the metal piece under my
left hand. This protects the sharp edge of the prop against
nicks. Props are sharp so they will cut through the water
easier.
The WWII Victory Ship. I don't have my camera at
an angle, the ship is listing over. Need a Clinometer
here. We don't go aboard this anymore because
the air is stagnant and wet and things are moldy.
The crane removing things from the ship. You know we
already have all the good stuff when we resort to taking
bedding and linens and brooms. Now if we could only find
some WWII enlisted mans mattresses. They have some
on the Kitty Hawk in San Diego I heard.
The Clinometer is in the top row 3rd thing from the right.
The big arrow point down to the earth and as the ship
rocks back and forth it shows how many degrees of list
the ship has. Handy thing to have when the ship is overloaded
on one side and might capsize. An extreme example
but that is what it is for.
The Tripoli
11/20/2008 0400 hrs.
Chip Provides Tripoli A Follow-up
On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 10:10 PM
Hi all from me and Miss Coni and Happy Thanksgiving.
I scanned the recent newspaper article about the Tripoli. I talked about it a bit in a previous email and some of you asked about it. I went by the ship yesterday but nothing was going on there. I was hoping to tell you stories about seeing rockets and bombs and such things, but alas, the ship was deserted.
On another note, we just got back from another trip to the Mothball Fleet. I know I said that the last email of pictures that I sent you were of the last trip we would make out there, but I am pretty sure I said "probably" or something like that. Well, I was "probably" wrong about that. We have made 2 trips since then and there is a rumor about 1 more trip.
We keep hearing a rumor about the decommissioning of the USS Kitty Hawk, an Aircraft Carrier. It has things on it that can be used on the Mighty Midget because they are from the Big War. It is in San Diego and there is some discussion of us going down there to "procure" a few things.
The article is pictured below and I also attached it in case the article was too small to read. I can't read it.
That is all,
Chip
A Man Who Communicates His Interest In Ships
My friend, Chip Carter, who owns North Bay Cabinets in Vallejo, CA, is a very good writer. His narratives flow smoothly and logically, and he imbues his sentences with enthusiasm. Chip grew up in Vallejo and worked on Mare Island as a pipefitter. You don't need to know that to realize that he has a love of ships and probably all things maritime; you only have to read his emails. I think Chip could have been a journalist.
At great risk to my relationship with Chip and in violation of all known email etiquette , I am reprinting a recent email with images (I had to reduce them, sorry) from him without his knowledge. If necessary, I'll beg forgiveness later.
I was lucky enough to be on Mare Island in a meeting when we got word that the USS Tripioli was just coming into the Mare Island Strait. It took a few days longer to arrive from Hawaii because of bad weather at sea. We all went down to the waterfront to watch it dock. The old timers from the Mighty Midget were there also. This is as close as I have been to the ship. It is not as big as an aircraft carrier but it is big. The Army actually leases it from the Navy. The ship needs painting but the Army doesn't paint ships and the Navy won't paint an Army ship. The fellas told us the stories about this. The Admirals would keep making them move the ship because it distracted from the Navy ships which are kept painted. I would suspect that they are paying $10,000 a month to dock it on MI.
The Artship is in one of the pictures so let me tell you a little about it. It was a WW II troop transport that was deactivated and given to the Maritime Academy to become the Golden Bear training ship. After they wore it out, it was taken to Oakland and renamed the Artship. At this point in time, it becomes a bad story and it is brought to MI to be sold as scrap to China. I was told it would make a 4 million dollar profit for the owners as scrap. When it was brought to MI, they parked it in front of our buildings. Lots of people looked at it but 1 guy I talked to was from a movie company. He was taking pictures of it because he wanted to use it in a movie. Seems the ship was almost like it was during the war and it was the only one left in tact. It was a few years ago and I have forgotten some of the details (age 59) about the story from the war. Seems a Father gave his life trying to save the sailors on the ship when it was sinking. It was to be a movie about this man. Next, the EPA stopped all exports of junk to China because they know that China just tears things apart and doesn't care what they pollute or contaminate with the bad stuff on the ships. So it sits. It was moved down the waterfront to where it is now. You will not be tested on this stuff because I am not sure how accurate my story is.
That is all
Chip
