Picture donated by Dan Chesley

 By Captain David C. Carruth USN (Ret)

Here is an addition to the story.  ESSEX had to go under at least one bridge to get to Brooklyn and even with the mast un stepped she didn't fit.  The shipyard people were going nuts trying to figure out how much ballast etc they would have to pump in to sink her down to get under.  The navigator, whom I had put in charge of decommissioning, did some computations and suggested they gather a lot of the items being removed or otherwise stored, and place them on the starboard side of the hangar deck so that she listed to starboard.  He had already figured what had to be placed there and was in the process of carrying it out.  It worked.

History of the USS Essex being Scrapped

Researched & Submitted by H. Douglas Hansen.

The ESSEX was decommissioned on 30 June 1969 and placed into the mothball fleet at the Bayonne, NJ shipyard.  On 1 June 1973, she was  stricken from the Navy records and sold to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corp of NY for $1,660,000.  On 01 June 1975 she Was removed from Navy custody and taken to the Kearny, N.J. Federal Ship yard and dismantled by the Union Minerals & Alloy Corp.

Donated by Wade R. Lucas

Wade R. Lucas is not a member of the Essex Association but a military buff that was informed  at his grandfather’s funeral that the USS Essex was in the first stages of being dismantled.  He raced over to Pulaski Bridge, Bayonne, New Jersey this Fourth of July 1975 weekend and took these three pictures of the ship as she was in her beginning stages of dismantling.The pictures illustrate a sad ending to the USS Essex, the Oldest and Boldest ship in the Navy. Many thanks to Wade for his contribution.

Click on a Picture for a Larger View

Donated by Sidney P. Denny

USS Essex Association Member