Remains of USS Corry, Napa River, California, 2007.
“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 . . .”
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.”
