“I had no idea the fleet was that big. I remember Reagan’s 600 ship navy goal being abandoned because of cost, supposedly. Then again, there was a time when the UK operated 4 carrier groups and Canada had the third largest navy in the world. We’ve transitioned from warfare capability to welfare capability.”
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The fleet was big. That figure covered everything that had a hull number from a harbor tug to an aircraft carrier with most of them being built between 1941 and about 1945 and most of them being Destroyers. The navy tended to keep stuff that worked until it was way past its prime. I was stationed aboard a WWII Fletcher class Destroyer in 1968 that was built in 1943 and finely scrapped in the mid 1970’s.
I had forgotten about the Fletchers. What a terrific platform for sustained naval gunfire. Alas, there were no dedicated heads for the gals, so they all they had to go.