Bay Ship & Yacht, located in Alameda on San Francisco Bay, has completed hydro-blasting the hull and superstructure, and inspecting the decommissioned USS Florikan for seaworthiness. The ship is shown in the shipyard’s 388 x 84 ft drydock prior to being towed to Texas for scrapping.
The Florikan will be one less ship in the US Maritime Administration’s Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay to arouse concern by California’s Water Control Board for San Francisco Bay’s water quality. Originally numbering more than 100 ships, the fleet has now been reduced to only 57 ships, as one ship after another has been removed from the fleet, cleaned at a local shipyard to comply with the US-Coast-Guard-enforced Invasive Species Act, and towed to Texas for scrapping. There are no licensed facilities for scrapping ships on the US West Coast.
The USS Florikan (ASR-9) was a Chanticleer-class submarine rescue ship. She was launched in June 1942 by Moore Dry Dock Co., a shipyard once located in Oakland, Calif., across the estuary from Bay Ship & Yacht’s present shipyard in Alameda. During World War II, the Florikan served at Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Kiska, Alaska. She has a displacement of 1,780 long tons, a length of 251 ft, a beam of 42 ft, and a draft of 14 ft 3 in.