Ghost Fleet Caretaker Won’t Abandon Ships : Maritime battle: The 66 vessels mothballed in a channel above San Francisco are ready for service if needed again, he says. Congressional critics want to junk them.

Scores of old rusting ships line a channel of an inland bay northeast of San Francisco, looming out of the fog like a fleet of Flying Dutchmen condemned to sail forever.

And they will, if Charlie Johnston has his way.

Congressional critics want to junk the 66-ship Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, but Johnston, caretaker of the “ghost fleet,” says that the ships are ready to weigh anchor if the nation needs them again.

“Many of these ships go back to service in World War II, Korea, Vietnam,” said Johnston, 40, the fleet’s acting superintendent.

During the last session of Congress, the ships here and at Ft. Eustis, Va., and Beaumont, Tex., came under fire from the House Small Business Committee’s subcommittee on regulation, business opportunities and energy.

“The taxpayers are getting repeatedly fleeced . . . for these maritime cadavers,” said Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), subcommittee chairman. William S. Broomfield of Michigan, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described the ships as “glorified rust buckets.”

The array of ships that local landlubbers call the “mothball fleet” is impressive from a distance, however, and the spookiness that earned it the nickname “ghost fleet” is evident while approaching in a tugboat.

They’re tied in rows, anchored at the bow and stern and joined to one another by gangplanks. Almost all are gray, and rust stains their hulls.

They include the Glomar Explorer, the CIA ship built to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine. Since the secret voyage off Hawaii in 1974, the 618-foot ship has been waiting for a new role.

“We keep the Explorer here for the Navy,” Johnston said, explaining that the Glomar isn’t Maritime Administration property, as nearly all the other ships are.

You can’t visit the Glomar, but the Meredith Victory, dubbed “The Gallant Lady” for rescuing thousands of Korean War refugees, can be boarded.

Paint chips litter the deck, leaving metal naked to the elements and rust is everywhere. Painters used to keep busy on the fleet, but money ran out in the mid-1980s.

“Besides, to us rust is no big deal as long as the metal is sound,” Johnston said as he stamped his foot to show the steel’s hardness. “If it really got bad we could put another plate over it.”

Unlike the outside, the interior of the ship, built in 1945, is almost spotless. Charts, books, spare parts, bedding and other items are left where they were in 1971 when it returned from Vietnam. The lack of interior rust is maintained by systems that keep airborne moisture low.

Below deck, it looks much like it must have in December, 1950, when it evacuated 14,000 Koreans as Chinese troops besieged the city of Hungnam. Five babies were born during the voyage that ended in Pusan on Christmas Day.

Could it be pulled into service again?

It would take a presidential act to call out the reserve fleet, which is supposed to be ready to sail on 30 to 120 days’ notice. The Ready Reserve, 96 newer ships kept at several ports, was set up to carry heavy military gear on five to 20 days’ notice.

Much of the Ready Reserve, including some ships from here, were called up after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August.

“(The ships) carried 90% of the Desert Shield equipment,” Johnston said with obvious pride. “Planes just can’t do it.”