In our transit we had a large lockmate, the USS Florikan a decommissioned submarine rescue ship. Here is a brief description from the Alameda Sun newspaper.
She was launched in June, 1942 by Moore Dry Dock Co., a shipyard once located in Oakland, 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 feet, a beam of 42 feet, and a draft of 14 feet, 3 inches.
She had spent about twenty years in the Reserve Fleet at Suisin Bay up river from San Francisco. Several local organizations sued the federal government claiming that the seventy one ships there were a significant source of heavy metal pollution to San Francisco Bay. Under the settlement reached at trial the federal government has begun removing the least valuable of these. There being no authorized ship deconstruction facilities on the West Coast, the Florikan was sold for about $925,000 to a company from Brownsville, Texas. She was being towed over 5,000 miles at a cost to tax payers over $1,000,000 when we say her. In the canal she was called a “dead tow” meaning that she had no onboard power and had to be towed and pushed by from one to three tugs.
She proceeded us through the up locks and followed us through the down locks.
For more information on the Florikan, follow these links: USS Florikcan,
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid823619053?bctid=32664765001
No comments:
Post a Comment