With Texas Parks & Wildlife now contemplating a ship reef/wreck off of Galveston, it is a shame that it couldn't happen quick enough to save the Forrestal. What a draw that would have been for divers.
USS Forrestal
- Thread starter lindenbruce
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chairmanTARAC
Contributor
For those reading this thread, Texas Artificial reef program made a huge effort to obtain the oriskany, When the navy chose Florida, efforts and proposals were also made to obtain the Forrestal or similar class carrier. Due to the design and other issues The navy will not allow these ships to be sunk as reefs.
As a FL resident and diver I watched the whole Oriskany thing with much anticipation, as I did the Spiegel Grove! I believe the 3 years mentioned above was just the last 3 years, but I may be wrong on that detail to the loooong process which included returning it to Corpus Chrisiti once because some of the paperwork required had not been completed by hurricane season and they did not have adequate hurricane level moorings at Pensacola!
But what struck me when I read the article about the Forestall the other day was the $1 or $.01 Navy sold it for. The big hype during the Oriskany affair was it was cheaper to sink it as a reef then dismantle it! The cost to reef the Oriskany was $12-$15 million according to various sources. But the cost to scarp it was going to be $20 million!! That figure must have been some of the hype to justify the reefing.
Regardless it is a shame the reefing program did not grow as it was expected to do!
We are volunteering at Santa Anna NWR near McAllen until May and I hope to get some Gulf diving in before we leave. We travel full time in our RV and will be heading to AK for the summer when we finish here!
But what struck me when I read the article about the Forestall the other day was the $1 or $.01 Navy sold it for. The big hype during the Oriskany affair was it was cheaper to sink it as a reef then dismantle it! The cost to reef the Oriskany was $12-$15 million according to various sources. But the cost to scarp it was going to be $20 million!! That figure must have been some of the hype to justify the reefing.
Regardless it is a shame the reefing program did not grow as it was expected to do!
We are volunteering at Santa Anna NWR near McAllen until May and I hope to get some Gulf diving in before we leave. We travel full time in our RV and will be heading to AK for the summer when we finish here!
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