26 Sep 2006
Happened across this pic:
Click for bigger version
A port bow view of the USS SARATOGA (CV-60), flight deck partially removed, being scraped in a dry dock at the Sparrows Point Extension Yard of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Location: BALTIMORE, MARYLAND (MD) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA) 23 Mar 1994
The pic needed to be flipped. Even a cursory glance tells us it’s not the Saratoga, even if we didn’t know that the Saratoga is still in reserve. But which ship is it? It appears to be the USS Coral Sea (CV 43).
September 26th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Looks like a Soviet F-14 to me. ;)
September 26th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
This is obviously not American at all. It looks to me like the new stealth carrier that Iran is developing from the bottom up.
September 27th, 2006 at 12:39 am
This is undoubtedly the Coral Sea. From the stack, it is obviously a Midway class. Midway is a museum, FDR was scrapped in the late ’70s so that means this could only be Coral Sea.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Also a stern shot, not bow. Agreed, Midway class.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:43 am
And the pic does not need to be flipped. It is proper as in the post. Look at the rake of the funnel, dual catapault tracks on the bow, elevator on the port stern, landing path stripes on the stern. The link is incorrect. What a cf.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Mrs. Davis: Yes, it’s not really a bow shot as the caption states. I flipped it as explained in the post.
September 27th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
This is definitely not the Sara. I served in the Gulf War on USS Biddle. Part of the Saratoga battlegroup, Sara was Forrestal class CV-60 with a one-peice island-stack unit. Similar to the islands of Nimitz, just add the stack to it.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Absolutely NOT the Saratoga. See http://www.saratogamuseum.org/index2.html From the looks of it I have no doubt it’s one of the Midway class carriers, just not sure which one. [Reposted after accidental deletion]
September 28th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/carriers/coralsea/ go to this site and you will see it is the Coral Sea. They have some more of the carnage there.
September 29th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
At first glance I thought ‘Midway’ Notice the short draft and wide open stern. We know where Midway is, and the FDR is long gone, so its got to be Coral Sea.
November 18th, 2006 at 12:00 am
This is definitely a picture of Coral Sea CV-43 being scrapped at a salvage yard on the Gulf Coast either in Texas or Louisiana.