Former aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, drifting through the fog like a ghost ship, departing Bremerton for the last time today.
Launched in 1960, she served for 49 years before being decommissioned and joining the reserve fleet of inactive vessels at Puget Sound Naval Yard.
The last carrier of her class to be decommissioned, her fate is to be towed to Brownsville, Texas by Foss Maritime Company for scrapping. She became the sole responsibility of the scrapping company as soon as she left the naval yard. As her beam is too wide for the Panama Canal, Foss has the duty of taking her clear down to the tip of South America, through the Strait of Magellan, and back up to the Gulf Coast.
This trip will take at least 129 days, cover more than 16,000 miles, and take three separate crews, changed out in Valparaiso and Trinidad. Her towed speed will be somewhere between 5 and 8 knots, depending on weather.
If you look closely in a few of the photos you will see her four propellers have been removed and are sitting at the rear end of the flight deck. This was a really amazing event to shoot, unfortunately the fog was so low that I couldn't get a clear shot above the flight deck, and several times the superstructure disappeared entirely into the fog.
I'll miss seeing her. I'll never forget driving surface streets in Bremerton and suddenly coming upon this giant aircraft carrier basically parked right on the road.
![image showing The hulk of USS Kitty Hawk began her final journey to the scrapper amid ghostly fog yesterday [OC]](965e69f0-c941-57df-8e67-3a74e0a7926f.jpg)
-AtomicAerials- on January 16th, 2022 at 19:21 UTC »
More photos and a short write-up here.
Former aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, drifting through the fog like a ghost ship, departing Bremerton for the last time today.
Launched in 1960, she served for 49 years before being decommissioned and joining the reserve fleet of inactive vessels at Puget Sound Naval Yard.
The last carrier of her class to be decommissioned, her fate is to be towed to Brownsville, Texas by Foss Maritime Company for scrapping. She became the sole responsibility of the scrapping company as soon as she left the naval yard. As her beam is too wide for the Panama Canal, Foss has the duty of taking her clear down to the tip of South America, through the Strait of Magellan, and back up to the Gulf Coast.
This trip will take at least 129 days, cover more than 16,000 miles, and take three separate crews, changed out in Valparaiso and Trinidad. Her towed speed will be somewhere between 5 and 8 knots, depending on weather.
If you look closely in a few of the photos you will see her four propellers have been removed and are sitting at the rear end of the flight deck. This was a really amazing event to shoot, unfortunately the fog was so low that I couldn't get a clear shot above the flight deck, and several times the superstructure disappeared entirely into the fog.
throwawaykarl on January 16th, 2022 at 19:29 UTC »
Served on her just after she was forward deployed to Japan. Great times on the old girl!
garygnu on January 16th, 2022 at 20:13 UTC »
I'll miss seeing her. I'll never forget driving surface streets in Bremerton and suddenly coming upon this giant aircraft carrier basically parked right on the road.