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wiredInUSA - August 2012
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The world’s first nuclear-
powered surface warship,
the
USS Long Beach
, has
been put up for auction
as scrap metal, to be
dismantled and recycled.
The 720-foot (219m) vessel,
the first American cruiser
since the end of World War
Two to be built new from
the keel up, boasted the
world’s highest bridge and
was the last such US vessel
with teakwood decks,
according to Navy history.
LongBeach
, commissioned
in 1961, is not the first war-
ship to be recycled. But the
defense contractor that
exclusively handles such
auctions, Government
Liquidation, said it would
be the first time in its
11-year history that a
nuclear powered guided
missile cruiser has been
sold for scrap.
Other decommissioned US
military vessels have been
sunk, sold toother countries
or more rarely turned into
museums open to the
public, as was the fate of
the storied battleship
USS
Iowa
, which opened in Los
Angeles as a museum in
July.
“I’m sure that
Long Beach
was always designated
for scrapping. We don’t
make a lot of ships
into museums,” said Pat
Dolan, spokesperson at the
US Naval Sea Systems
Command.
Long Beach
had 10,000
tons of steel, 300 miles of
electrical cable and 450
tons of aluminum, earning
it the voice radio call
sign “Alcoa” after the
aluminum maker of the
same name.
Nuclear
cruiser
up for
auction