Tico's sister ship, USS Lexington CVA-16, although not scrapped, sold, or passed on to a third world country, suffers an almost englorious fate same as the Tico. Turned into a musuem, she was scuttled and settled onto the bottom of the bay in Corpus Christi, Texas, with just enough of her skeletonized hulk above water to give the curious a place to visit and relive the past. She was given but a few short years of this life before her hull will rust out, and then what? I don't know how other "museums" fare out as to longevity, but I do know many of them are either land-locked, such as the submarine Batfish, or still afloat and nestled to a pier and can still lift with the tides. Sometimes scrapping is the merciful thing to do, rather than just wasting away as the Lexington will do. To be passed on to another country in another part of the world these ships fought a war with, or fought to keep free, never.
It makes my stomach churn. I know that these are just hunks of steel, but the role they play in many of our lives gives them life, and a personality. My own ship (AS-41) has also been decommissioned and scheduled to be destroyed. I have this stupid emotional reaction that I wish I could buy her and turn her into a floating hotel or something. Anything but to have an amazing part of my past destroyed.
Agreed, never the less, to see a vessel in such a setting as this is sad, knowing what is coming.
I spent seven years on my first ship, and less than a year aboard Gompers, but the feelings were the same when I heard of their passing, difference being, the Catamount was scrapped. The Dixie was also scrapped, but the Ticonderoga, a different story. She was stripped of all useful material, then towed to Taiwan to be dismantled, a disgracful ending for a warship with Tico's history.
But, Charles is right, all four ships live on in the spirit of their crews. If you don't believe that, take a look at the wall in the room where I sat at this keyboard.
Better to be sent to the bottom by friendly fire when your time is up,than to cut apart in some foreign shipyard & the scrap turned into cheap toys or someother useless item.Great ships never die,the spirit of there crews & exploits never leave them.
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I spent seven years on my first ship, and less than a year aboard Gompers, but the feelings were the same when I heard of their passing, difference being, the Catamount was scrapped. The Dixie was also scrapped, but the Ticonderoga, a different story. She was stripped of all useful material, then towed to Taiwan to be dismantled, a disgracful ending for a warship with Tico's history.
But, Charles is right, all four ships live on in the spirit of their crews. If you don't believe that, take a look at the wall in the room where I sat at this keyboard.