Weinberger Sinks Navy Plan to Have Its Own Tall Ship

Just one day after the disclosure of a Navy plan to build a tall ship, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger scuttled the idea.

Navy Secretary John F. Lehman, in a memo dated July 16 and obtained by the Associated Press on Monday, had ordered the chief of naval operations to initiate the design of a tall ship--a large, square-rigged sailing vessel--that the Navy could claim as its own.

The move raised eyebrows both within the service and in Congress, where the Pentagon has been fighting a losing battle to preserve the President’s fiscal 1987 budget request.

The plan also attracted the attention of Lehman’s boss, Weinberger.

“The secretary of defense has heard nothing about this idea,” Robert Sims, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said today. “We understand the Navy is looking at it. But the fact is, it is not approved and would not be approved. Any savings (from other programs) could be applied better elsewhere.”