Wilmington's Mothball Fleet-- Part 1

From the October 12, 2011, Wilmington (NC) Star News "My Reporter: Brunswick River harbored huge 'Mothball Fleet" by Ben Steelman.

There is a great aerial view of these ships.  A reader had asked, "What was the 'mothball fleet'?"

Officially, it was named the National Defense Reserve Fleet and sometimes referred to as the "The Ghost Fleet" and anchored in row after row on the brunswick River, near its confluence with the Cape Fear River.  It consisted of World War II surplus transport vessels. 

So many were tied up that it was also called "the second largest ship graveyard in the world."  The largest was in the James River, near Hampton Roads, Virginia.

After the war, the U.S. Maritime Commission established a "Reserve Fleet Basin" on the Brunswick River to house Liberty ships and others no longer made or needed.  The first, Liberty Ship SS John B. Bryce arrived August 12, 1945.  Between January and April 1946, 426 came to Wilmington.

Over the next several years, vessels moved in and out od "storage."  Altogether, there were 628 at one time or another.  The biggest number of them were Liberty Ships, with 542.  These were mass-produced freighters like the ones built during the war at Wilmington's North Carolina Shipbuilding Company.

There were also 68 Victory Ships (an update of the Liberty Ships) and 48 others, including tankers.

I remember seeing them as a young kid.

It Was a Sight to See.  --GreGen