When you cross the Ravenel heading east, the first thing that catches your eye is the ugly-as-sin parking deck for a nearby hotel and office space. But what should catch your eye is the decommissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which has served as a floating museum off the coast of Mount Pleasant since 1976.
When the United States military gifted the ship to South Carolina, it did so on an as-is basis, so the fuel and oil that once kept the ship running remained on board. After nearly 50 years mired in pluff mud, the ship’s outer hull began to corrode, posing a serious risk to the area’s beaches and tourism industry. Using federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, a $31.6 million cleanup was completed this month, including the removal of 9 tons of asbestos insulation and 1.6 million gallons of oil, contaminated water and residual fuel from the ship’s hull and interior compartments. Divers also patched 35 holes in the hull to prevent further leaks. Crews then added back freshwater to the now-clean tanks to ensure the Yorktown remains stable.
In 2022, it was necessary to spend $2 million to tow another military gift — the ex-USS Clamagore submarine, which opened to the public in 1981 — to Norfolk, Va., where it was recycled. The problem? PCBs were present throughout much of the vessel, and more than 500 lead batteries, weighing nearly a ton and a half each, needed to be removed. According to one of the industry’s leading experts in historic ship restoration, it would have cost upward of $9 million to clean up the Clamagore.
Before the aircraft carrier’s recent cleanup, Gov. Henry McMaster said it “was a ticking environmental time bomb… had these materials leaked, they would have caused catastrophic damage to Charleston Harbor, destroying marshes and estuaries, killing marine life, and threatening industries that support thousands of jobs across the Lowcountry.”
The ship replaced the original Yorktown, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Battle of Midway, and was the second of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built between 1941 and 1950. She was commissioned in April 1943 and saw service in the Pacific in World War II. It was decommissioned in 1947 and recommissioned in 1953, but the Korean War ended before she could see action. The ship was later converted into an anti-submarine carrier deployed during the Vietnam War and was also used as a recovery ship for NASA’s Apollo space program. It was decommissioned for the final time in 1970 and reopened to the public six years later as a museum. At its peak, 3,300 sailors manned the 820-foot-long vessel.
Patriots Point, which encompasses the USS Yorktown, welcomes about 300,000 visitors annually and generates an estimated $205 million in economic impact for the Charleston tri-county region, according to a 2024 study by the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. Visiting groups spend more than $530 per visit on average, with about 70% going to local hospitality sectors such as lodging, dining and transportation.
The site also supports approximately 1,756 jobs and $71 million in labor income each year, providing a major source of employment for local residents.
Given the Yorktown’s significance, developers have proposed “Patriots Annex,” a build-out of a “Seafair Village” consisting of hotels, multifamily residences, office space, retail, restaurants, a conference center, an amphitheater, public plazas and possibly another museum. Plans also call for outdoor areas with gazebos, tiki huts, fire pits and an interactive fountain resembling the pineapple fountain in downtown’s Waterfront Park.
As a result, the site’s total economic impact is projected to rise to nearly $400 million annually, supporting about 3,000 permanent jobs and generating more than $128 million in labor income when completed.