Dismantling a derelict: Coast Guard launches final cleanup at Delta’s ‘graveyard of ships’

NEARLY FOUR YEARS after a Cold War-era warship slipped beneath the surface of Little Potato Slough, federal crews are cutting it apart piece by piece, a complex demolition effort aimed at removing the last in a trio of sunken vessels contaminating one of California’s most fragile waterways.

Divers worked below the surface this week, carving into the corroded hull of the HMCS Chaleur, a 152-foot decommissioned former WWII Canadian Navy patrol vessel and a later minesweeper following the war that has been partially submerged in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta near Stockton since 2021.