History
In some cases (for instance, at the outset of the Korean War), many ships were successfully reactivated at a considerable savings in time and money. The usual fate of ships in the reserve fleet, though, is to become too old and obsolete to be of any use, at which point they are sold for scrapping or are scuttled in weapons tests. In rare cases, the general public may intercede for ships from the reserve fleet that are about to be scrapped; usually asking for the navy to donate them for use as museums, memorials or artificial reefs.
Around 1912, the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and the Pacific Reserve Fleet were established as reserve units, still operating ships, but on a greatly reduced schedule. After the Second World War, with hundreds of ships no longer needed by a peacetime navy, each fleet consisted of a number of groups corresponding to storage sites, each adjacent to a shipyard for easier reactivation. For example, USS Brock (APD-93) was underway for Green Cove Springs, Florida, on 11 April 1945. Brock arrived there on 13 April 1945, and joined the Florida Group, 16th Fleet, which later became the Florida Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Many of the deactivated Second World War merchant vessels were of a class called the "Liberty Ship" which was a mass-produced ocean-going transport which was used primarily in the convoys going to/from the U.S., Europe and Russia. These Liberty Ships were also used as the navy's support vessel for its fleet of warships and to ferry forces across the Pacific and Atlantic. It was a race between how fast the U.S. could build these ships and how fast the German U-Boats could sink them, and the Liberty Ship was significant in maintaining the beleaguered United Kingdom.
Most of these Liberty Ships when deactivated were put into "mothball fleets" strategically located around the coasts of the U.S. They began to be deactivated and scrapped in the early 1970s.
The groups of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet were at Boston, Charleston, Florida, New London, MOTBY/New York Harbor, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and Texas. The groups of the Pacific Reserve Fleet were at Alameda, Bremerton, Columbia River, Long Beach, Mare Island, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockton, and Tacoma.
Read more about this topic: United States Navy Reserve Fleets
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