The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration has signed contracts totaling $1,136,106 for the recycling of three obsolete ships from its reserve fleets. All three ships will be recycled at the Esco Marine facility in Brownsville, Texas. Two of the ships, Cape Catoche and Cape Carthage, are in the James River Reserve Fleet site at Fort Eustis in Virginia. When they depart the James River site for recycling, they will be the 68th and 69th ships to do so since January of 2001. The third ship, Del Viento, is in the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas. The Maritime Administration keeps ships in three National Defense Reserve Fleet sites to support Armed Forces movements and to respond to national emergencies.