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Not exactly, Frisco, or Cabot but a famous CV.

Does anyone know why on earth they scrapped the big E?

Because "carriers weren't needed anymore", all that was needed were nukes...

That is OK but why they scrapped it instead of mothballing or even keeping as a museum ship like Alabama?

Yeah, well... That costs money, and when you're not in a hot war, you don't get unlimited budgets. Plus, again, the money had to be split three ways after 1947: the US Army, the US Navy and the US Air Force with their nuclear bombers.

ORIGINAL: Ursa MAior

That is OK but why they scrapped it instead of mothballing or even keeping as a museum ship like Alabama?

Because the Navy for the most part is not going to foot the bill for the preservation. That has to come from private sources and there wasn't a whole lot of enthusiasm for such in the early years after WWII. Most people just wanted to forget and move on with their lives. I had an interesting conversation with the currator aboard HMS Warrior about this subject back when i visited England. Needless to say I left the ship with a bit less "fire" in my belly afterwards (though i'll still always lament the fact that all the great Dreadnoughts from the UK are gone.)

San Francisco has a moth-balled fleet sitting out in the bay. I believe there is at least one CVL or CVE out there. Must be about 20 ships, mostly transport.

Bremerton may have a few too, saw some older looking warships there recently

The USS Enterprise (CV6) and USS Saratoga (CV3) were very overweight by the end of WW2 with all the war modifications. Newer, faster, heavier aircraft were on their way, and strengthening the flight decks and catapults would require yet more weight.


It has already been mentioned above, but the use of the Atomic bomb in future wars made a lot of armchair strategists assume that conventional militaries obsolete. (Just what the penny pinching poloticians like to hear. "Let's divert defense spending to my pet project instead!")

With an overabundance of Essex types (complete and near complete), it was decided to remove those two from active duty.

There was an attempt to save the Big-E as a museum or monument by private citizens, but sufficient money could not be raised. (The Sara was a target in the Bikini Atoll Abomb tests, along with Nevada, Pennsylvania, Nagato, Prinz Eugen, among others.)

If I may speculate, the public was not in the mood for monuments. The war was brutal, many families suffered personal losses, many veterans suffered disfigurements, and European cities devastated (along with rumors of the "final solution" horror). The American public wanted to "move on" and return to peacetime pursuits of happiness, and avoid reopening old emotional wounds.

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

Bremerton may have a few too, saw some older looking warships there recently

I served on the USS Ranger (CV61) in the eighties. That ship is now mothballed in Bremerton. *sniff*

ORIGINAL: mlees

The USS Enterprise (CV6) and USS Saratoga (CV3) were very overweight by the end of WW2 with all the war modifications. Newer, faster, heavier aircraft were on their way, and strengthening the flight decks and catapults would require yet more weight.


It has already been mentioned above, but the use of the Atomic bomb in future wars made a lot of armchair strategists assume that conventional militaries obsolete. (Just what the penny pinching poloticians like to hear. "Let's divert defense spending to my pet project instead!")

With an overabundance of Essex types (complete and near complete), it was decided to remove those two from active duty.

There was an attempt to save the Big-E as a museum or monument by private citizens, but sufficient money could not be raised. (The Sara was a target in the Bikini Atoll Abomb tests, along with Nevada, Pennsylvania, Nagato, Prinz Eugen, among others.)

If I may speculate, the public was not in the mood for monuments. The war was brutal, many families suffered personal losses, many veterans suffered disfigurements, and European cities devastated (along with rumors of the "final solution" horror). The American public wanted to "move on" and return to peacetime pursuits of happiness, and avoid reopening old emotional wounds.

I personally think they just f--ked up. There are too many redundant ships and museums all around the States from the same scrapping frenzy of '59 for the "mood of the public" to be singled out as the cause of her demise.

The desire to "move on" and "cut costs" can be further exclamation pointed by the massive decline/demobilization and decay of the US armed forces between 1945 and 1950, which helped lead directly to the setbacks and disasters that befell us in Korea.

San Francisco has a moth-balled fleet sitting out in the bay. I believe there is at least one CVL or CVE out there. Must be about 20 ships, mostly transport.

Google Earth pic...?

-F-