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In the LSD inactivation scheme,  USS COLONIAL (LSD18) was designated as lead ship to pursue the inactivation of USS TORTUGA after USS TORTUGA 's 26 January-1970 decommissioning. The crew of USS COLONIAL (LSD18)  along with a 20 man augmented USS TORTUGA caretaker crew worked long and tedious hours towards the preservation of USS TORTUGA in the months of February and March

·         The CO, INACTSHIPMAINTFAC, Vallejo accepting the inactived USS TORTUGA on 3 April 1970.

·          Transferred to the temporary custody of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) on 6 October 1970

·         Transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD), 15 September 1971, for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA.

·         Struck from the Naval Register, 15 October 1976

·         She was carried on the Navy list into 1977.

·         Her name then disappeared from the list.

·         The Tortuga remained in Mothballs until 1987, in 1987 she was designated as a practice Target Ship for the US Navy and taken out of mothballs, 

·         She was made environmentally safe and all traces of oil and hazardous materials were removed and she towed to the Target site and fired on with "Tomahawk missiles". She was seen sinking at pier 13 around 1987.

·         Final Disposition, scuttled, 21 August 1988 after grounding on San Miguel Island while being used as a target, the ship was partially dismantled, raised and towed offshore and scuttled on this date

USS TORTUGA earned five battle stars for Korean War service and eight battle stars for Vietnam War service

THE LAST LANDING FOR USS TORTUGA

THE LAST LANDING FOR USS TORTUGA

"VIEW OF SAN MIGUEL ISLAND"
AS VIEWED THRU PORT HOLE OF THE TT.

BY PETER C. HOWORTH (As Reprinted from Sea Magazine)

The mammoth ship looked like a hallucination. How could such a large vessel get stranded so close to shore, I wondered. Only a strong southeaster, coupled with exceptionally high tides, could account for the Landing Ship Dock lying within an easy stone's throw off the beach at San Miguel Island. And an even higher tide would be required to float the hulk clear, I surmised, as I turned my boat for home two days later, the manager of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Francesca Cava, asked if I would join her and representatives from the Navy and the National Park Service in an inspection of the wreck named USS Tortuga. All three agencies wanted me to take photographs of the ship for their files. We left that same day, crossing the channel in minutes by helicopter and landing on the ship itself. The stern had been literally torn off when the ship was driven ashore. Waves washed in and out of the hull, which lay broadside to the beach. Fortunately, no oil or fuel leaked from the shattered hulk; the vessel had been "sterilized" by the Navy. Even the brasswork had been salvaged.

This venerable ship, built in 1945, was fated to end its days as a floating target. But a powerful "Southeaster" had intervened December 15, 1987, and the ship went 'hard aground,' locked in the grip of a reef so shallow I could have walked to the wreck from shore without getting my feet wet. To seaward, the Omni present swell boomed against the steel flanks of the ship. Like its namesake, USS Tortuga was amphibious. Its huge, U-shaped hull was divided into ballast tanks, which could be flooded, allowing assault craft to motor out through the massive steel door in the stern. The tortured metal "creaked and groaned," and I could feel shudders passing through the vessel as I continued my inspection, "even this cold steel hulk had a soul."

Last summer, the Navy decided to salvage Tortuga. Although the National Park Service manages San Miguel, the Island is owned by the Navy, but the surrounding waters are controlled by various federal and state agencies, so the Navy decided it would be best to remove the ship piece by piece, the "superstructure" was removed and the largest part of the hull was patched. The ballast tanks were pumped dry, and Tortuga finally was pulled off the beach. About 20 miles out to sea, the ship was allowed to sink to its final resting-place. The "stern section" will be allowed to break up, then it will be removed also, leaving no traces of Tortuga's last landing.

Correction on this statement. According to a Diver that has visited the area on San Miguel Island where the Stern was located, parts of the ship still remain & they are easily accessible. CW

Updated History
The ex-USS TORTUGA (LSD 26) went aground on 15 December 1987 at Cardwell Point, on the southeast corner of San Miguel Island , off the coast of Southern California. The ship, carrying personnel nor cargo, was being towed from Port Hueneme to an area west of St. Nicholas Island where it was to be used for an operational Tomahawk missile exercise. The grounding occurred during a storm with winds blowing east-southeast to 50 knots and seas in excess of 20 feet. Impact of the grounding caused a 100- foot section of the stern to beak off and fall free from the 355-foot fore section, which had been holed in numerous place and was impaled on a large boulder. Storm winds reached at least fifty knots with seas over 20 feet.
          Original plans called for sinking the hulk, but because of the inclement weather this was not possible before it went aground.
          The vessel came to rest on a rock and sand shore approximately 1,500 m west
of Cardwell Point on the south shore of the island, at 120 deg 18'45" W; 34 deg. 01'10" N. It lies within the boundaries of Channel Island National  Park, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, California Channel Islands, International Biosphere Reserve, and San Miguel Island State Ecological Reserve. This wild and remote island is particularly renowned as the only
place in the world where six species of pinnipeds share the same rookery
area and haulout locations. The island is the home of several rare and unique
plant and animal species and contains numerous archeological sites.
THE UPDATED HISTORY AND FINAL DAYS OF THE TORTUGA WERE RESEARCHED AND COMPILED BY CHUCK WESTBROOK FORMER CREWMEMBER 1956-1960.

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