Former Schuyler ship to breakers
One of Fort Schuyler’s former training ships is headed to the breakers.
The State, known as Empire State V when it was used as a training ship at the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, will be towed from the James River Reserve Fleet today to be recycled at the Bay Bridge Enterprises facility in Chesapeake, Va.
The ship had been the troop carrier USNS Barrett before its second life at SUNY Maritime.
The James River Reserve Fleet is one of three National Defense Reserve Fleets (NDRF) anchorage sites. The other two are at Beaumont, Texas and Suisun Bay, Calif. The U.S. Maritime Administration maintains the three fleets as reserves of ships for national defense and national emergencies and arranges for the disposal of ships when they are no longer considered useful.
MarAd also announced that North American Ship Recycling is buying the World War II-era vessel Hoist for $61,000.
Built in 1945, the Hoist served as a Navy rescue and salvage vessel. Some of its noteworthy missions were the 1964 search for the lost attack submarine USS Thresher, and the 1966 recovery of a hydrogen bomb lost off Palomares, Spain, after the crash of a B-52 bomber. The Hoist entered the James River fleet in 1994.
The Hoist will be scrapped at North American Ship Recycling’s facility at Sparrows Point, Md., near Baltimore.
The State and Hoist are the 59th and 60th ships to depart the James River fleet since 2001.