Ship that saved BIW to be mothballed

BATH — The USS Oliver Hazard Perry, believed to have saved Bath Iron Works from financial ruin in the 1970s, is set to be mothballed by the Navy.

The Perry, which was launched into the Kennebec River on Sept. 25, 1976, is scheduled to be decommissioned on Feb. 20 at Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville, Fla.

After a brief ceremony the guided missile frigate will be taken to the Navy’s inactive shipyard in Philadelphia for storage.

Ralph Linwood Snow, who wrote a book on the history of BIW, said he wasn’t surprised by the decommissioning.

“Ships have a 30-year life span,” said Snow of Woolwich. Technology and the end of the Cold War shortened that, he said.