The retired aircraft carrier Constellation will take its final cruise
this summer, from the Pacific Northwest to Texas for dismantling, the Navy
announced Friday.
The Navy awarded a $3 million contract to International Shipbreaking,
according to a news release, for the cost of towing the ship that served the
Navy for four decades.
The Constellation is the third of the Navy’s conventionally powered
aircraft carriers to head for the scrapyard this year. The Forrestal and
Saratoga also were sold to shipbreaking companies based in Brownsville, Texas.
However, those contracts totaled 1 cent each.
“The $3 million will help cover the cost of towing Constellation, since
the ship has to go around South America,” Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman
Chris Johnson told Navy Times. “The other two ships have a relatively straight
shot down the East Coast.”
Constellation is expected to make the trip from its home at Naval Base
Kitsap, Washington, to the Gulf of Mexico in the next few months, the release
said.
“Connie,” as her crew called her, was the second in the Kitty Hawk class
of carriers, christened in October 1960. A fire in December of that year killed
50 workers and caused $75 million in damages, delaying the carrier’s
commissioning until October 1961, according to Naval History and Heritage Command.
The Constellation measured 1,047 feet long by 248 feet wide and could
travel at more than 33 knots.
Through nearly 42 years of service, Connie deployed to support combat
missions in conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan before its decommissioning in
August 2003 at Naval Station North Island, California.
Source: navy times. 17 June 2014
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