Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet

Ships of the reserve fleet, Suisun Bay, c. 2001. Battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) is 2nd row from the bottom (moored at the Port of Los Angeles since 2012 as the USS Iowa Museum.)

The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet colloquially known as the mothball fleet, is located on the northwest side of Suisun Bay (the northern portion of the greater San Francisco Bay estuary) in Benicia, California. The fleet is within a regulated navigation area that is about 4+1⁄2 miles (7.2 kilometers) long and 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) wide. It begins just north of the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge and runs northeast, parallel to the shoreline. Water depths range from about 46 feet (14 meters) at Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) at the foot of the anchorage, to about 26 feet (8 m) MLLW at the shallowest berths towards the northern end of the anchorage. As of February 2024, seven ships remain in the fleet (see below).[1]

  1. ^ "National Defense Reserve Fleet Inventory" (PDF). U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. 31 January 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2023.