This month we have a great story of historical importance by Bob Fish about the Suisun Bay’s Mothball Fleet. Once home to Howard Hughes’ mysterious, CIA commissioned Glomar Explorer, while the fleet has diminished in number over the years, it is still home to a few intriguing vessels including the battleship, USS Iowa and the Hughes Mining Barge which houses the not-so-secret stealth ship, Sea Shadow. Our story is brought to life by the extraordinary photography of our own, talented, Susan Wood.
One of my earliest recollections of the Mothball Fleet came by way of a close-up introduction when my parents took me on a fishing expedition on the delta. I was about eight years old at the time.
My dad enjoyed fishing but didn’t own a boat, so on this particular occasion he rented one. It was a compact, wooden boat with peeling, drab-green paint, an outboard motor and a small cowling on the bow. As we headed off I remember being frightened as the tiny craft bounced over the choppy whitecaps of Suisun Bay. I also remember worrying that our boat would sink, as dirty water that smelled of fish guts and gasoline swirled around in the bottom of the boat as it swayed with the rhythm of the swells. I kept checking to see if the water level was rising.
As we approached, the “Mothball Fleet” grew ever larger. While I had seen the ships many times from the car while crossing the Benicia Bridge, this was the first (and only) time I got to see the ships up close. I was awe struck, looking up, as the ships swelled to become behemoths before my eyes. They seemed immense. In those days, there were considerably more ships than there are today—well over 300—so the rows extended just about as far as the eye could see, eastward, up into the delta.
Eventually, my attention shifted away from the ships as we got to the business of fishing. As it turned out, I became “the man” that day as I caught the biggest fish. It was a giant—some three feet long, and so heavy my father had to reel it in. My parents had no idea what kind of fish it was but were eager to get to shore so that they could report the name of their son to the Guinness record people.
Upon reaching the dock, I remember my father proudly hoisting the burlap sack with my “record” catch, carrying it up to the man that managed the boat rentals. As my dad pulled out the fish, our excitement became confusion as the man quickly shoved it back into the bag exclaiming, “geeze man, keep that thing out of sight.” He politely educated all of us about what kind of fish I had caught, a Sturgeon, of which the legal “keeper” length was 46 inches—a full ten inches longer than my fish. It was “hero to zero” in ten seconds flat!
Nearly 50 years later, I still well remember that day. Giant ships and a giant, almost legal, fish!
In later years I would learn that there are, indeed, huge Sturgeon to be caught in Suisun Bay. The world record was caught in 1983 by Joey Palotta of Crockett. It weighed in at a mere 468 pounds—somewhat larger than my 36 incher!
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