USS Forrestal Supercarrier Sold for 1 Cent

By James Brown | Oct 23, 2013 07:59 PM EDT

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Navy's first supercarrier USS Forrestal was sold for one cent to All Star Metals, a contractor who plans to dismantle, scrap and recycle the 1,067-foot cumbersome ship.

The ship, best know for an accidental explosion caused by an electrical issue that killed 134 men and injured 300 more in1967, while a young John McCain was among the survivors.

"The Navy tried to donate the historic ship for use as a memorial or a museum, but no viable applications were received," Ken Killmeyer, historian for the USS Forrestal Association, told Fox News. "It's something that the Navy is caught between a rock and a hard place."

According to Fox News, the company is planning to tow the USS Forrestal from its current location in Philadelphia to its facility in Brownsville, Texas.

The aircraft carrier was once named "the biggest ship ever built" by Popular Science magazine in 1954. To build the ship, more than 16,000 engineers, draftsmen and builders worked together with 2 billion dollars spent.

"The USS Forrestal featured enough air-conditioning equipment to cool New York City's Empire State," Popular Science issue stated.

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