'Mothball' Navy Urgently Needs Big Repairs

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23316, 27 July 1950, Page 7

'Mothball' Navy Urgently Needs Big Repairs

"Washington, July 25

Naval experts examined the United States “mothball fleet” today and were not pleased with what they found. The “mothballing” lias kept ships in their 1945-46 condition, but that condition is not good.

In 1945-46, when the Navy decided to put most of its ships in "mothballs” (cover the working parts of weapons and exposed surfaces with wax and plastic coatings) many ships were in bad condition.

Crews stripping away watertight casings are finding big repair jobs. Many of the ships were in a sad state 'after years of hard war service. They would have headed for dry-dock repairs had the war lasted longer. Now. the repairs must be made and more time will be needed for the building design alterations which were skipped at the time of “mothballing” or which have been developed since. The Navy will not say how many ships will eventually be recommissioned or how long they will take to get any ready for duty. Meanwhile, air force crews are brushing the sand off Superfortresses that were lined up in open-air “cocoon” storage on south-western deserts. They are also wiping off the grease that coated bombers and fighters put in storage hangars. Planes placed in "cocoon” storage are reported to have lasted well under their plastic coatings.