The USS Escape was a United States Navy rescue ship built in 1942. The USS Escape served the United States in two wars, the Second World War and the Korean War. This ship also assisted the Mercury manned spaceflight mission.

The USS Escape was decommissioned in 1995, after serving for almost two decades in the Coast Guard. After the decommissioning, the USS Escape has been part of a fleet of ships that were rusting away. This fleet can be found in the James River off Newport News, Virginia.

Soon, USS Escape will be scrapped by a company known as Bay Bridge Enterprises. It will be towed with all of its 1630 tons and every part of it will be sold to a steel company. This will cost the United States 115,200 US Dollars.

In the past, the government did not pay for this recycling of old merchant-class ships. United States based recycling companies used to bid for these ships to the Maritime Administration. Things have changed due to the economy being very poor, and also because of the asbestos these ships contain. Asbestos being part of the ships means that before being scrapped, the ship will need an abatement work done.

A representative of the Maritime Administration said that they put the ships up for sale and hope someone buys them.

Before the economic crisis the Maritime Administration received a bid of 3.5 millions dollars for four ships. After approximately two months, the bidders cancelled their offers due to the crisis beginning.

In the end, after another few months, the United States government, and even a veterans association, had to pay 1,8 million to the recycling company. The price of steel is the largest variable for such operations, and salvagers like Bay Bridge depend on that price. As stated above, asbestos and other problems on the ship take time and money to solve before scrapping the ship.

The Maritime administration owns the reserve fleet, which is made up of several types of ships, mainly from former Navy vessels and merchant ships. Each ship that is not in use anymore is added to a list and will be waiting to be disposed off as soon as possible, and with as low as possible costs.

Until recently, the Maritime Administration was still selling ships, most of them to outside scrapping companies. In recent years though, the sending of ships overseas was banned due to environmental issues.