The scrapping of IX-22 (ex-USS Oregon)

In 1956, the rusting and battered hulk of the USS Oregon, once the pride of the United States Navy and the United States itself, lay in Kawasaki Harbor, Japan silently being prepared for scrapping. No fanfare would greet the warship again; people would no longer be able to walk her once proud decks and see the warship that gave so much for her country and contributed greatly to the nation that had become the most powerful in the world.

If machines could live and breath, the Oregon was surely dying and in a few days, would be no more. Many people in the States wept for the old "Bulldog", and many tried desperately to save her, but she was too far gone. Silently, the "Bulldog" herself wept and awaited her fate, to feed the growing furnaces of her enemy of just eleven years ago. Thus ended the life of the USS Oregon, warship, national symbol, museum, and barge. Through three wars, even with no guns, she fought for freedom.

 

IX-22

Courtesy of Mr. Robert Lawrence

The former USS Oregon, now property of the Japanese awaits the welders torch. 

 

IX-22 (2)

Courtesy of Mr. Robert Lawrence

Another view of the former USS Oregon, soon to be nothing more than scrap metal.

 

Click on this photograph to see more photographs of the scrapping of USS Oregon.