Remains of USS Corry, Napa River, California, 2007.
Remains of flush-deck destroyers in the San Francisco Bay area Remains of USS Corry

Remains of Corry (above) and Thompson in 2007.

Remains of USS Thompson Remains of USS Thompson Remains of USS Thompson
“With the passing of Teapa,” wrote Commander John D. Alden in his fine 1965 book Flush Decks & Four Pipes, “the saga of the flush deckers apparently came to an end, but perhaps even now one survives as a barge or hulk in some backwater . . .”
San Francisco Bay area wrecks

He was right: there are two, and one of them isn’t even in a backwater but in the middle of San Francisco Bay!


EX-USS CORRY

Corry (DD 334) was one of the flush-deckers with Yarrow boilers stricken 22 July 1930 and sold for scrap. Rather than being cut up, however, she was apparently towed up the Napa River a few miles upstream from Mare Island and stranded on the east bank. Her hull remains there today, a landmark well known to fishermen, pleasure boaters and kayakers.

EX-USS THOMPSON

Thompson (DD 305) was another of the hulls stricken in 1930. A survivor of the Point Pedernales disaster, she was sold for scrap the following year but refurbished and used as a floating restaurant in South San Francisco Bay during the depression.

In February 1944, the Navy repurchased her, stripped her to a hulk and towed her out into South San Francisco Bay, where she was scuttled on a mud flat for use as a training target by army and navy pilots. Today, her remains still lie between the San Mateo and Dumbarton Bridges, more than a mile from the nearest shore, and are listed in tide tables as the “South Bay Wreck.”


Source: Dickey, A Family Saga.