Coral Sea

She was supposed to be rubble by now, this once-mighty warship moored at a watery chop shop in South Baltimore.With most of her armored flight deck peeled away, and her weapons and electronics long gone, the USS Coral Sea seems easy prey for torch-wielding workers swarming over the huge gray carcass.But the fighting lady refuses to go quietly, or easily, to her fate: being turned into automobiles, bathroom pipes or microwave ovens."This is not a rusting hulk," says Kerry Ellis, owner of Seawitch Salvage in Fairfield.

JESUS FLORES was born in Villagran, Mexico, in 1951, and he, like so many others, came north - to the choking metal scrapyards of Brownsville, Texas, where he worked as a cutter for 25 years. This spring, he became acquainted with the remains of the Santa Isabel, a 10,200-ton freighter that had been built when he was 16, at the now defunct Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Chester, Pa., and that first saw service under the flag of a company called the Grace Lines. For the past 21 years, the Santa Isabel has been the property not of Grace but of the U.S. government, rotting at a mooring on the James River in Virginia; last summer, the Maritime Administration contracted with ESCO Marine, in Brownsville, to break the old vessel into scrap.

City firefighters last night battled a smoldering two-alarm fire aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Coral Sea that is being dismantled at a berth in the Patapsco River off the 2900 block of Childs St. in South Baltimore.The fire, which broke out about 4: 04 p.m. in a confined area at least eight decks below the flight deck of the 50-year-old carrier, was reported by the Coast Guard, said a Fire Department spokesman.The fire sent columns of smoke into the air and a second alarm was sounded at 4: 24 p.m., bringing 14 pieces of equipment and nearly 60 firefighters to the scene.

Authorities opened a criminal investigation yesterday to determine who buried 12 explosives -- including a fat 4,000-pound bomb of the kind dropped from airplanes during World War II -- at a former military shipyard along the water in remote southern Baltimore. But the day seemed to yield as many questions as answers, with military officials suggesting some of the bombs had been manufactured during different periods, one as late as the Vietnam War. And they said the bombs could have been buried on the industrial site in Fairfield as recently as the mid-1990s.

Accompanied by an entourage of tugboats, the USS Coral Sea made its way up the Chesapeake Bay yesterday to the scrap heap, a casualty of Bush administration defense cuts.The 46-year-old aircraft carrier, named for a pivotal World War II naval battle off Australia in May 1942, was overhauled at a cost of $200 million in the mid-1980s. It will now be dismantled and sold for perhaps $1 million, its armor plates destined for stainless steel factories.Old Navy ships once were sunk, then used as artificial reefs.

A Chinese tug is standing by in Baltimore harbor to take the USS Coral Sea, a once-mighty aircraft carrier, to a shipbreaker's yard in India.The ship's exit, crowning the failure of a plan to dismantle the huge old warship in Baltimore, could come as early as next week.In its wake, the stripped and battered ship will leave behind a passel of lawsuits, a newfound respect for the difficulty in dealing with toxic chemicals on board old ships, and a determination by the Navy not to allow any more of its vessels to be sold overseas for scrap.

In the nation's first criminal case involving environmental violations and the ship scrapping industry, a federal jury in Baltimore yesterday convicted a local businessman of exposing workers to hazardous asbestos and dumping oil and debris into the Patapsco River while dismantling the historic aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea.After three weeks of lengthy and often complex testimony in a case that was being closely watched by the U.S. Navy, the four men...

The USS Coral Sea -- or what's left of it, anyway -- belongs in America, and the 48-year-old aircraft carrier cannot be towed to India to be broken up, the Defense Department has decided.The looming hull of the giant warship is tied up in a Baltimore salvage yard, a monument to a plan that failed.Its 65,000 tons were supposed to be scrap by now, and the work was supposed to have been done here in Baltimore, but the enterprise faltered and stalled and wound up in a web of lawsuits.The New York company that owns the rights to the ship made plans to cut through the problems by selling the armor-plated hull to a shipbreaker's yard in India.

The company that has been scrapping the USS Coral Sea in Baltimore's harbor for the past three years was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on charges that its workers had improperly and unsafely stripped the asbestos from the old aircraft carrier, and then tried to hide what they were doing.The project to dismantle the 900-foot ship has run into trouble almost since the day the Coral Sea arrived on July 6, 1993, for what was supposed to have been a 15-month job. The historic naval vessel has been witness to maneuverings by angry creditors, a falling-out among the partners, a serious crane accident, constant cash-flow shortages, and on-again, off-again plans to throw in the towel and tow it to India for final scrapping.

A federal prosecutor and a defense lawyer yesterday presented sharply contrasting views of the man in charge of scrapping the USS Coral Sea in Baltimore's harbor.Kerry Ellis Sr., prosecutor Jane Barrett said, knowingly exposed workers on the aircraft carrier to the hazards of asbestos while violating federal laws. But Ellis' defense lawyer, Richard Karceski, said Ellis broke no laws and was a victim of overzealous regulators who were more interested in bringing criminal charges than in helping him correct flaws in his asbestos program.

To embrace reading, children must learn what it means to 0) themI have read with interest the articles in your Reading by 9 series. They have brought many of the complexities of teaching reading to the attention of the public.The April 26 article "Fads in reading come and go" quoting Donald B. Hofler as saying good reading instruction "begins with an awareness of the alphabet combined with an awareness of how the sounds and letters go together" is not quite accurate.Research in the early childhood area has shown that effective instruction begins with the development of oral language through purposeful conversations that help children understand the how and why of communication.

Kerry L. Ellis, the local businessman convicted of exposing workers to asbestos and of dumping oil and debris into the harbor while scrapping the USS Coral Sea in Baltimore, was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison.In sentencing Ellis, U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson harshly criticized the Navy for failing to ensure that shipbreakers such as Ellis adhere to safety and environmental laws while dismantling obsolete warships such as the Coral Sea."There is from my perspective the added complicity of the Navy and its lack of controls in general - a hands-off policy with regard to shipbreaking," Nickerson said.

When the U.S. Navy began its great sell-off of surplus ships in 1991, Richard Jaross was among the first to see an opportunity.He began dismantling Navy ships at a California scrapyard, where workers were exposed to lead and asbestos. He came to Baltimore to help put together the ill-fated Coral Sea project. He then set up a scrapyard in Wilmington, N.C., but the state shut it down for mishandling asbestos, polluting a river and contaminating the soil with oil and lead.Troubled histories, it turns out, are not uncommon among the shipbreakers to whom the Navy has entrusted its ships.

When the U.S. Navy began its great sell-off of surplus ships in 1991, Richard Jaross was among the first to see an opportunity.He began dismantling Navy ships at a California scrapyard, where workers were exposed to lead and asbestos. He came to Baltimore to help put together the ill-fated Coral Sea project. He then set up a scrapyard in Wilmington, N.C., but the state shut it down for mishandling asbestos, polluting a river and contaminating the soil with oil and lead. Troubled histories, it turns out, are not uncommon among the shipbreakers to whom the Navy has entrusted its ships.

THE USS CORAL SEA -- the "Ageless Warrior" -- steamed at 33 knots to Cold War trouble spots for 42 years, carrying planes, nuclear capability, 4,000 crewmen and the hopes, pride and fears of the superpower whose security it maintained.Now it's junk at the former Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock yard in Fairfield, dying in ignominy and scandal. The Seawitch Salvage company chief who took on the largest shipbreaking and salvage project in American history now stands convicted of forcing his men to breathe asbestos and dumping oil and filth in the Patapsco.

In the nation's first criminal case involving environmental violations and the ship scrapping industry, a federal jury in Baltimore yesterday convicted a local businessman of exposing workers to hazardous asbestos and dumping oil and debris into the Patapsco River while dismantling the historic aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea.After three weeks of lengthy and often complex testimony in a case that was being closely watched by the U.S. Navy, the four men...

A good ship if there ever was one, the U.S.S. Coral Sea recently was tugged up the Chesapeake Bay to be scrapped here in Baltimore by Kurt Iron and Metal.The huge aircraft carrier was authorized during World War II, joined the active fleet in 1950 and saw action in Vietnam, where its planes flew the first and last sorties of that conflict. It also took part in many other missions.It was named for one of the most epic naval battles ever fought. Here is Martin Gilbert's thumbnail account of the Battle of the Coral Sea:"On May 2 [1942]

Kerry L. Ellis, the local businessman convicted of exposing workers to asbestos and of dumping oil and debris into the harbor while scrapping the USS Coral Sea in Baltimore, was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison.In sentencing Ellis, U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson harshly criticized the Navy for failing to ensure that shipbreakers such as Ellis adhere to safety and environmental laws while dismantling obsolete warships such as the Coral Sea."There is from my perspective the added complicity of the Navy and its lack of controls in general - a hands-off policy with regard to shipbreaking," Nickerson said.

A federal prosecutor and a defense lawyer yesterday presented sharply contrasting views of the man in charge of scrapping the USS Coral Sea in Baltimore's harbor.Kerry Ellis Sr., prosecutor Jane Barrett said, knowingly exposed workers on the aircraft carrier to the hazards of asbestos while violating federal laws. But Ellis' defense lawyer, Richard Karceski, said Ellis broke no laws and was a victim of overzealous regulators who were more interested in bringing criminal charges than in helping him correct flaws in his asbestos program.

City firefighters last night battled a smoldering two-alarm fire aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Coral Sea that is being dismantled at a berth in the Patapsco River off the 2900 block of Childs St. in South Baltimore.The fire, which broke out about 4: 04 p.m. in a confined area at least eight decks below the flight deck of the 50-year-old carrier, was reported by the Coast Guard, said a Fire Department spokesman.The fire sent columns of smoke into the air and a second alarm was sounded at 4: 24 p.m., bringing 14 pieces of equipment and nearly 60 firefighters to the scene.