Forgotten Fleet: The Mothball Navy

By Daniel Madsen

A pictorial history of the U.S. Navy's mothball fleet, this handsome book takes a rare look at the so-called fleet behind the fleet, from the end of World War II to the present. Through photographs of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557505438
• ISBN13: 9781557505439
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

The U.S.Navy's forgotten fleet........

A really righteous history of many ships that served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, and how they faded (and are fading away) to US Salvage yards, and now Indian beaches with no regard whatsoever for the parts they played in our nation's history.... After reading this book, you'd wish they would be used for Stateside reefs, instead of being sent to their demise, unappreciated, in Asia..... AND, like their sisters that went that route before WWII, we may just have them thrown back at us in the next war...... We really never learn from our mistakes.......

The title says it all

This book may, at first glance, not be about what you think it is. True, it is about great warships and boneyards, but it's not really about warship boneyards. The author shows a crowded peir a reserve naval yard and givs a summary of how the ships are preserved. The real treat is that he says "These ships have untold, or "Forgotten" stories of how they served in the fleet. He presents us with stories of ships that never made the headlines, and honors all men that served in the fleets, not just the one that made the front pages of newspapers or that are recounted in scores of other books like Enterprise, Alabama, and New Jersy. This is a great book to have in conjunction with Warship Boneyards. They compliment eachother and it's highly recomended they be purchased as a set.

Well worth reading

The New York Military Affairs Symposium winter 2000 review of this book said it for me. "To call this a history of the mothball fleet...is to miss the point...the book is much more than that. It is a meditation on the nature of history and the historical memory...". Some of the reviewers apparently did miss the point of this excellent look at the two lives of some of the well known and obscure ships of the fleet. No, it is not a look at policy, nor is it full of countless pictures of long dead ships. Instead, it is all about what these ships meant, both in service and in mothballs. It is precisely the look at the parallel lives of these vessels, active and then in mothballs, that makes this book unique.

An impressive, informative addition to military studies.

Forgotten Fleet: The Mothball Navy is an impressively illustrated history of the U.S. Navy's deactivated warships that were placed in rows and rows of ship storage lanes, a kind of coastal parking lot for decommissioned warships of all makes and categories. Originally intended for a reserve fleet, some were reactivated, but most of them have been broken up. Daniel Madsen takes the reader through berthing areas, repair shops, radio rooms and more -- all sealed up, frozen in time, looking exactly as they did when they were sealed decades before. Every kind of ship composing this forgotten fleet is represented in this fine history of a heretofore neglected aspect of America's contemporary military experience. Forgotten Fleet is an impressive and informative contribution to any personal or academic military studies collection.

Great book

Although the author can get a tad too wistful at times, the book did an excellent job of portraying the fate of much of the Navy post-WWII. I grew up in Norfolk and always enjoyed seeing shops. Visting a mothball squadron in Suisun Bay, CA made me want to learn more about the fleet. This book did a nice job. The pictures were fabulous. My only complaint is that there is not enough discussion about policy.