Upon striking from the Navy list, April 30, 1990, ex-USS Coral Sea was stripped out by the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, then towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for final stripping and to await scrap sale.

In May 1993 the hulk was purchased for scrap by N.R. Metals of New York, and Seawitch Salvage was subcontracted to do the actual scrapping. In turn, Seawitch leased the site at Fairfield from Kurt Iron & Metal, which had a small scrap operation at the location. This is just off the southern entrance into the original Baltimore Harbor Tunnel on I-95, on the south side of the Patapsco River.

August 13, 1993 — Ex-Coral Sea had arrived at Fairfield on July 5, 1993, and scrapping at this point was minimal: only a few "test cuttings" had been done. The mast parts seen on deck had been cut off in Norfolk.

August 1993. Photo taken, © and submitted by Larry Backus; pilot, Ryan Backus.

September 10, 1993.

September 20, 1993 — The structure outboard of the hull on the starboard side forward had been cut off; the very forward end of the flight deck had been removed; and a hole had been cut in the flight deck just aft of the catapult accumulators. Debris from this cut was strewn around the flight deck between the catapults and the island.

October 4, 1993 — Coral Sea was the biggest warship scrapping project ever undertaken. Shown here in the 1st stage workers had started removing her flight deck at the bow. The project was mired in legal and environmental problems since the onset.

Official USN photo by Don Montgomery, courtesy of Haze Gray & Underway.

January 24, 1994 — These shots show the forward end of the angled deck cut away.

July 13, 1994 — The island structure had already been removed; the stack came down three days later. At this time, debris was everywhere.

August 25, 1994 — By early August the entire scrap operation had come to a halt, plagued by lawsuits from various government and private agencies.

Official USN photo by Don Montgomery, courtesy of Haze Gray & Underway.

August 25, 1994 — Broadside view of the ship; this is not a pretty sight.

Official USN photo by Don Montgomery, courtesy of Haze Gray & Underway.

December 2, 1994 — The entire island and stack structures were gone; the flight deck aft of the forward hangar bulkhead had been removed, along with most of the hangar walls. Scrap operations had not proceeded below the hangar deck level.

March 1995. Photo taken, © and submitted by Larry Backus; pilot, Ryan Backus.

Also shown is ex-Sanctuary (AH-17).

Sometime in 1995 the ship's owners announced the hulk would be sold for scrapping in India. The hulk was cleaned out and made ready for the tow and in October the Chinese ocean tug De Da arrived in Fairfield. The Navy protested because the terms of the sale contract forbade scrap operations outside the US; a Federal Court sided with the Navy in mid-January 1996, and the sale was cancelled. Scrapping work resumed in March 1996, only to stop again in August, when Seawitch was indicted on criminal charges related to the scrapping. Fires broke out aboard the hulk in November 1996 and May 1997. Scrapping work had resumed by mid-1997, but proceeded at a slow pace. Scrapping was finally completed on September 8, 2000.