Meanwhile, after 10 years of largely unremarkable service, the disarmed hulk of the USS Thompson became a floating restaurant somewhere in the South Bay. But that was years after the Navy had already unintentionally scrapped a big chunk of its fleet of its Clemson-class destroyers on the West Coast in one dramatic, terrifically ill-advised maneuver. So, at the height of the Depression with funding tight, the decision was made to sell them for scrap for other uses. In addition to needing expensive refits, they exceeded allowed destroyer tonnage under a 1930 arms treaty. The vessel was part of a fleet of similar flush-deck California-based destroyers, performing sea patrol duties and taking on tasks like mapping the ocean bottom on the east and west approaches to the Panama Canal.īut by 1930, these so-called Clemson-class cruisers had become functionally obsolete. The USS Thompson was built at Bethlehem Iron Works in San Francisco in 1919, fitted out at Mare Island and launched in 1920. The wreck has an interesting history, but the Thompson’s back story is where things turn fascinating for sailors and navigators hoping perfect their craft (and perhaps save their skins).

World war 2 navy ship uss thompson