Historical Abandoned Military Bases Around the World

Ghost Ship Fleet, Suisun Bay, California.

The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet is located on the northwest side of Suisun Bay (the northern portion of the greater San Francisco Bay estuary). The fleet is within a regulated navigation area that is about 4 1/2 miles long and 1/2-mile wide. It begins just north of the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge and runs northeast, parallel to the shoreline. Water depths range from about 14 meters (45 feet) at Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) at the foot of the anchorage, to about 8 meters (26 feet) MLLW at the shallowest berths towards the northern end of the anchorage.

The Ghost Fleet is a name given to the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet that sat in the northwest part of the Suisun Bay located near San Francisco beginning in 1946. The ships in the Suisun Bay are one location of ships that were part of the larger National Defense Reserve Fleet. The idea was for these ships to serve as reserve ships should they become needed in times of national emergency or national defense. At its highest, the fleet had around 2,000 ships ready for action. There were a number of notable ships in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet specifically, but the most famous is the USS Iowa. The USS Iowa fought in WWII and the Korean War and famously transported President Roosevelt.

Unfortunately the Ghost Fleet has created extensive environmental issues for the Suisun Bay due to the massive amount of paint peeling off the ships and into the bay. The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) studied the contamination and the US government has a plan in motion to have all of the ships removed from the bay with the obsolete ships sold for scrap. Only a few remain today and all should be gone by the end of the decade.