On 7 May 2016, DS "Barry" had her masts cut down and with a mixed caretaker crew of U.S. Navy and towing company personnel aboard, was towed from the Washington Navy Yard by the commercial tugs "Emily Ann", "Meagan Ann", and "Thomas D. Witte". As the ship was towed down the Anacostia River to the Potomac River, a Washington, D.C., fireboat saluted her with a water cannon display, and Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling played the U.S. Navy anthem "Anchors Aweigh" over loudspeakers ashore. "Barry" was scheduled to make a 50-hour journey via the Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and Delaware River to the inactive ship facility at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, from which she had been towed to Washington in 1983. There she was to be mothballed and sold for scrapping.