USS Coral Sea (CV-43) - Decommissioning and Scrapping

Decommissioning and Scrapping

Coral Sea was decommissioned 26 April 1990 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register two days later. She was sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping on 7 May 1993 to Seawitch Salvage of Baltimore, but scrapping was delayed by numerous financial, legal and environmental issues. Nearly 70,000 tons by the time she was struck, Coral Sea was the largest vessel ever scrapped up until that date and may be the last large American aircraft carrier ever to be scrapped (newer environmental laws make it unprofitable for companies to scrap carriers within the United States, and it is illegal to sell capital ships for scrapping abroad). The company attempted to sell the hulk to China for scrapping, but the Navy blocked the sale in court. The scrapping continued off and on for several years until finally completed on 8 September 2000.

Two years after the scrapping started, a transcript of a supposed communication between a US naval vessel and a Canadian lighthouse began circulating widely in email. The Coral Sea was one of the ships most frequently identified. The urban legend continues to circulate, and the Navy's webpage on it points out that the Coral Sea could not have been sailing off the Canadian coast at the time as it was being scrapped.