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Tin Can Sailors
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HNSA News
News from the
Historic Naval Ships Association |
(Last
updated 07/08/10)
WWII landing craft will dock here in September
Some LSTs built at Neville Island
Monday, July 05, 2010
By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A ship that delivered supplies to Normandy for the D-Day invasion
will arrive in Pittsburgh in September and take on a different kind
of cargo -- tourists.
LST 325 -- one of the Landing Ship, Tanks designed to float right
onto enemy beaches and unload materiel through a pair of giant doors
-- will dock near Heinz Field and be open for tours Sept. 2-6. Sept.
6 is Labor Day.
The ship still looks much as it did on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Even the
anti-aircraft guns are intact, Bob Jornlin, the captain, said. Mr.
Jornlin, a Navy veteran who served on LSTs during the 1960s, was
part of a nonprofit group that obtained the ship from
Greece a decade ago and sailed it 6,500 miles
to Mobile,
Ala., a voyage that attracted
international publicity. "A lot of people said we couldn't do it,"
he said.
After extensive restoration, LST 325 is a "ship museum" in Evansville, Ind.
Mr. Jornlin and a crew of about 40 -- including farmers,
firefighters and veterans -- take the ship out twice a year. This is
the ship's first visit to Pittsburgh, a city with deep connections to LSTs. Mr.
Jornlin's ship was built at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, but the
Dravo Corp. plant on
Neville Island manufactured 146 LSTs during World
War II, according to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission. LST 325 will pass Neville Island on its way to and from Pittsburgh. In all, Mr. Jornlin said, Pittsburgh and a handful of other cities, including Seneca, Ill., about 325
miles northwest of
Evansville, made about 1,000 LSTs during the
war.
LST 325 will depart Evansville on
Aug. 21; dock in Wheeling,
W.Va., Aug. 26-30; and leave for
Pittsburgh
on Aug. 31. Provided the ship can clear the
Wheeling
Suspension Bridge on the Ohio River, it
will arrive in Pittsburgh on Sept. 1
and dock at North Shore Riverfront
Park, owned by the Sports
and Exhibition Authority.
Tours
will be $10 for adults, $5 for children 6 to 17 and $20 for families
-- parents and children 6 to 17. Children under 6 will be admitted
free.
On Sept. 7, the ship will depart Pittsburgh
for Marietta, Ohio.
About a year ago, former McCandless resident Kathleen Thomas took
her mother, Ann Thomas, and aunt, Jul Kurtek, to see LST 325 in Evansville. The pair had worked on sections of
LSTs at Neville
Island but had never had
an opportunity to admire the finished product. "It was a real treat
for them," said Ms. Thomas, president of a Tigard, Ore., engineering
firm and author of the self-published book, "Don't Call Me Rosie:
The Women Who Welded The LSTs and The Men Who Sailed On Them." She
wrote the book because of her mom, Ms. Kurtek and a second aunt,
Vera Drab, who also worked on the ships at
Neville
Island.
Mr. Jornlin said LST 325 may be the only intact LST in the United States.
He said he knows of a couple that have been converted to ferries and
one that was modified for dredging.
LST 325 is 328 feet long and 50 feet wide, with enough space to hold
20 Sherman tanks. As with all
LSTs, its most important feature was a shallow draft that enabled
the ship to beach.
Mr. Jornlin said LSTs were the brainchild of British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, who recognized that Allied forces would have to
avoid heavily mined ports and deliver troops right to Nazi-occupied
beaches.
Launched in 1942, LST 325 supported the invasions of
Sicily
and Salerno in Italy. Twice, crew members were
injured during attacks by enemy warplanes.
But the ship's most historic duty came as part of the huge flotilla
assembled for the Normandy
invasion. Mr. Jornlin said it delivered its first load of equipment
on June 7, 1944, the day after D-Day. From then until April 1945, it
made 44 more trips between England
and France, many to the Normandy beachheads. On return trips to England, the
ship carried wounded soldiers, according to a history compiled by
Mr. Jornlin's group, the USS LST Ship Memorial.
One moment of gallantry stands out. In December 1944, the crew
helped rescue 700 sailors aboard a troop transport torpedoed off the
French coast.
In the 1950s, LST 325 helped to install radar posts along the coasts
of Greenland and
Canada. In the 1960s, it was
transferred to the Greek navy under a lend-lease program, Mr.
Jornlin said.
Mr. Jornlin, who lives in Earlville, Ill., said he and other veterans began their pursuit of an
LST in 1990 and eventually received congressional help in obtaining
LST 325 from
Greece.
About one-third of the way back to the United States, the ship developed
mechanical problems and had to find a port to put in for repairs. At
first, a helpful country was difficult to find.
"We were a nonregistered ship, in essence a pirate ship," Mr.
Jornlin said.
Finally, Mr. Jornlin said, England
offered Gibraltar as a repair
station, saying the heroic LST was welcome in any British port.
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Restoration underway for USS Orleck
Posted: Jul 03, 2010 11:43 PM EDT Updated: Jul 03, 2010 11:49 PM EDT
By Crystal Price
LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) - It has been one month since the USS Orleck
sailed in to the lake area, and volunteers are working to fully
restore the ship in time for tours by the end of the year.
Members of the USS Orleck Naval Museum among other volunteers are
renovating the ship and fixing portions that were destroyed en route
from Orange, Texas.
"When the tug began to move it out, a chain from the barge tore out
three stanchions on the stern," said Sherwood Buckalew, curator for
the USS Orleck Naval Museum.
Volunteers have been able to put the stanchions back in place and
add stronger lifelines around the ship.
The restoration process is also going on inside the ship where some
of the overhead paint is deteriorating. "Volunteers are coming in
and scraping, cleaning, and painting the ship," said Buckalew.
Workers have restored electricity in the ship and the entire ship is
expected to be air conditioned.
Buckalew started working on this project in 2001, and he said the
ultimate goal is to take the visitors back in time to the end of
World War II. "My efforts are to have a former radio man come back
here and go in that radio room. If he says this looks just like how
I remember it, then I know I've succeeded with my effort when that
happens," said Buckalew.
The ship is expected to open for tours within the next six months.
If you are interested in donating time or supplies to restore the
USS Orleck, feel free to stop by their office at the dead end of North Enterprise Boulevard on the Calcasieu River.
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USN’s Lean Manning Backlash
Report: Fewer Sailors Erode Readiness, Cut Ship Life
By Philip Ewing
An
independent probe into the state of the U.S. Navy’s surface force
has found widespread, systemic dysfunction in its manning, readiness
and training, and repudiates much of the service’s high-level
decision-making in the last decade.
The
report — commissioned by Adm. John Harvey, the Fleet Forces
commander, and produced by a seven-member panel led by retired Vice
Adm. Phillip Balisle that included two serving rear admirals — warns
that unless the Navy mends its ways, it will continue to see surface
ships condemned in inspections and sail unready to fight.
Although sailors and Navy observers have pointed before to many of
the problems and trends that Balisle’s “fleet review panel”
uncovered, the report provides the clearest, most detailed look yet
at how a preoccupation with saving money drove the surface Navy to a
low point.
“It
appears the effort to derive efficiencies has overtaken our culture
of effectiveness,” the Balisle report says. “The material readiness
of the surface force is well below acceptable levels to support
reliable, sustained operations at sea and preserve ships to their
full service life expectancy. Moreover, the present readiness trends
are down.”
How
did it happen? Driven by top-level pressure to be as efficient as
possible, Navy leaders in the early 2000s made a series of
interrelated decisions to cut sailors, reform training, “streamline”
fleet maintenance and take other steps in keeping with the
philosophy then en vogue of “running the Navy like a business.”
The
fleet organized itself into layers of “enterprises,” which thickened
already legendary layers of military bureaucracy and made command
relationships difficult to understand, the panel found.
At the
time, every commander assumed what his colleagues were doing would
make up for what he was doing in his own area: For example, as the
fleets reduced the number of people aboard ships, they expected
incoming sailors to be so well prepared by the simultaneous
“revolution in training” that every young new expert could take the
place of many previous journeymen. As it happened, the “revolution”
trained sailors by computer, and many of them arrived at their first
ships never having touched the equipment they were to operate. Ships
began to fall into bad shape.
Chief
of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said that the move to
“optimal manning” made practical sense earlier this decade, but
“changes to the structure ashore, changes in some of the oversight
functions” have come to hurt ships’ ability to train, do maintenance
and fight.
Between 1994 and 1999, about 3.5 percent of ships failed inspections
by the Board of Inspection and Survey, Balisle’s commission found.
From 2005 to 2009, almost 14 percent of ships failed. Not only does
this hurt the fleet of today, it means the Navy can’t keep around
the ships it says are vital to building its hoped-for fleet of at
least 313.
“Independent reports indicate that if the surface force stays on the
course that it is presently on, DDGs will achieve 25-27 years of
service life instead of the 30 years planned and 40 years of
extended service life desired,” the report says.
Even
the highest-profile and most vital system aboard the Navy’s
front-line warships — Aegis — fails much more often than panel
members expected; technical problems with cruisers’ and destroyers’
SPY-1 radars have gone up by 45 percent since 2004, the report said.
But because of smaller crews, poor training and the complicated
bureaucracy of getting repairs or replacement parts, many ships sail
while “consciously accepting degradation.”
“Technicians can’t get the money to buy spare parts,” according to
the report. “They haven’t been trained to the requirement. They
can’t go to their supervisor because, in the case of the
[destroyers], they likely are the supervisor. They can’t repair the
radar through no fault of their own, but over time, the
non-responsiveness of the Navy system, the acceptance of the SPY
degradation by the Navy system and their seniors, officers and
chiefs alike, will breed (if not already) a culture that tolerates
poor system performance…. Sailors are losing their sense of
ownership of their equipment and are more apt to want others to fix
it.”
The
panel found other examples of how it says the fleet tolerates
mediocrity, including low levels of technical skill: “[I]t appears
that a significant portion of the surface force is lacking in
[personal qualifications], and this in turn suggests that many of
our ships’ leaders are at worst not dedicated to training their
sailors, or, more likely, simply are more tolerant of
non-completion. Recent incident reports wherein non-qualified watch
standers made critical errors tend to provide further confirmation.”
These
trends, combined with a longstanding surface culture to “get
underway at all costs,” put ships in danger because they set sail
even if they’re not ready, the report said.
Although it doesn’t mention incidents by name, the report’s
description gibes with several high-profile mishaps, including the
2009 grounding of the cruiser
Port Royal off
Honolulu
and a March buoy strike by the destroyer The Sullivans off Bahrain.
Inexperienced watch-standers and broken equipment helped contribute
to both those accidents, each of which resulted in the firing of the
ship’s commanding officer.
Balisle, now a top executive with DRS Technologies, headed the Naval
Sea Systems Command until his retirement in 2005. He declined to
comment on his report through a spokesman.
Capt.
Cate Mueller, a spokeswoman for Fleet Forces Command, said Balisle’s
report didn’t tell the Navy anything it didn’t already know.
“Fleet
leaders, based upon their own prior analysis, believed that many of
the problems that the panel subsequently identified — including
manning shortfalls, inadequate shipboard and shore maintenance, and
insufficient training — were taking a toll on surface force
readiness,” she said. “In that regard, the fleet review panel
confirmed, in context and in detail, what fleet leaders had
suspected.”
She
also reaffirmed what senior Navy leaders have hinted for the past
few months: They’re swinging the pendulum in the other direction by
looking to increase crew sizes, improve training and re-teach the
fleet to maintain its ships and equipment.
But
Mueller would not comment on specific recommendations in Balisle’s
report, including precise numbers for how many sailors the panel
thinks the Navy needs: 4,496 new sea billets and 2,028 shore and
maintenance billets, for a total of 6,524 new billets. Those numbers
are based on an overall recommendation that surface ships be
automatically manned at 110 percent over their base level, to
account for the roughly 8 percent effective loss of crew the
committee discovered across the board.
Mueller would only concede that “it's safe to say that the intent is
to shift billets from shore to sea ... except those being shifted
into shore maintenance billets from other shore billets.”
The
Balisle report also recommends fleet commanders impose “red lines”
below which ships can’t fall and still get underway. For example, a
ship just emerging from a long period in the yard would need to be
certified by Naval Surface Forces to ensure it had qualified sailors
and working equipment to be able to operate safely.
Port Royal went to sea on the first day after a four-month yard period, but its
commanding officer wasn’t qualified and much of its critical
navigation gear wasn’t working. Moreover, the ship’s watch-standers
weren’t confident about where exactly it was, all of which
contributed to the ship getting stuck on a coral reef for four days
just off Honolulu Airport, heavily damaging the Aegis cruiser.
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Royal tour takes to the
water
Halifax — The Canadian Press Published on Tuesday, Jun. 29, 2010
10:07AM EDT
One of Canada's
most storied warships was honoured Tuesday with the presentation of
an award from the World Ship Trust presented by the Duke of
Edinburgh.
HMCS Haida, a Tribal class destroyer designed and built in Britain in the
late 1930s, saw action in two wars before being retired and turned
into a floating museum in 1963.
Prince Philip presented a certificate bestowing Haida with the
trust's International Maritime Heritage Award to two officials from
Parks Canada, Alan Latourelle and Alice Willems. It is only the 30th
ship to
receive the honour.
Commander Eric Berryman of the
U.S.
navy and a member of the World Ship Trust paid tribute to Haida's
history. “She epitomizes the fine record and incredible expansion of
the Royal Canadian Navy during the years of hostility and also went
into service in Korea,” said
Cmdr. Berryman.
On handing the certificate to Ms. Willems, the prince joked: “You
can hang this up somewhere, not in your bathroom.”
Haida is permanently tied up in
Hamilton, where it serves as a naval museum
and Canadian historic site.
The Tribals were the first destroyers to incorporate twin gun
mountings, making them exceptionally powerful for their size. In
all, 27 were built, eight for the Canadian navy of which one,
Athabaskan, was lost in the Second World War. In the fall of 1943,
Haida operated with the Royal Navy to assist with convoy escort
duties to northern Russia
on the Murmansk
run. On Dec 26, 1943, she was at the Battle of North Cape when the
German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk. In 1944, Haida helped
clear enemy shipping off the coast of
France
in anticipation of the D-Day landings. Her crew gained a reputation
for destroying more enemy vessels than any other ship in the Royal
Canadian Navy. Haida sailed with
Canada's Atlantic Fleet in the
post-war years and did two tours during the Korean conflict before
being taken out of service in 1963.
Alarmed that she would be sold for scrap, a group of supporters
raised enough money to buy the vessel and have her towed to Toronto, where she served for several years as
a naval museum, maritime memorial and Sea Cadet training ship. The
ship was purchased by Parks Canada in 2002, refitted and towed to Hamilton for permanent display.
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Budget keeps Battleship New Jersey museum afloat
By CAROL COMEGNO • Courier-Post Staff • July 1, 2010
CAMDEN — The
last-minute restoration of state aid has averted the closing of the
Battleship New Jersey museum. On Tuesday, the governor signed a
compromise state budget that restored $1.74 million in grants for
the Battleship New Jersey
Museum and
Memorial on the Camden Waterfront.
Under Gov. Chris Christie's original budget proposal, the museum was
to receive no line item aid.
The $1.74 million is the same amount it received last fiscal year.
However, that figure is only half of the $3.4 million the museum
once received in aid before the Legislature began reducing it the
last few
years because of state budget woes.
Related
Sean Conner, a spokesman for the administration, said there will be
no formal application process since the budget specifically
allocates the money for the ship. "It does not have to apply for
funds as was initially envisioned when the governor proposed the
budget," he said.
James Schuck, museum president and chief executive officer, said
without aid this year, the historic ship would have been forced to
close by September despite the many operating cutbacks it has made.
"We are at a critical point in our ability to continue. Without
funding, we are facing closure," he said of a ship he called a
"national icon."
Patricia Egan Jones, a member of the battleship board of trustees,
said the board and museum staff are "greatly relieved" to be
receiving the same amount as last fiscal year. She said elimination
of all funding in the governor's 2010-11 budget for the ship museum
"took us all by surprise." "But you had a new governor and staff
putting together a pretty
difficult budget," she said.
The World War II-era ship is the most militarily decorated of all
the Navy battleships and opened nine years ago as a museum. It is on
both the state and national registers of historic places.
The Christie administration initially had transferred the ship line
item to cultural arts for the first time in a state budget but did
not transfer any money for it. "In this year's budget we are now
guaranteeing funding for the Battleship New Jersey," said
Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, who helped shape the
compromise state budget as chairman of the Assembly Budget
Committee. "This will allow us to continue to fund a valuable
historical treasure that enriches both the Camden Waterfront and the
entire South Jersey community."
Shawn Crisafulli, spokesman for the
New Jersey secretary of state, said the
battleship will receive the money through the New Jersey Council on
the Arts in two allotments, one of 75 percent followed by one of 25
percent.
Schuck said lower state aid for the ship in the 2009-10 fiscal year
and the weak economy forced the museum to reduce its full-time staff
to seven -- a 40.3 percent reduction to an already-trimmed staff. He
said hundreds of volunteers help the museum ship to operate. Schuck
said the museum budget has been reduced from nearly $6 million to $4
million a year with utility costs, insurance and maintenance alone
costing more than $2 million a year for a ship nearly 900 feet
long.He said the museum can no longer weather a bad year like the
older Newark Museum, which lists $37 million in endowments and is
receiving $2 million in state aid this year.
In 2004, the state Department of Education made the battleship's
history a mandated part of the public school curriculum.
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Famed Liner
Steers Clear of Scrapyard
Preservationists to Buy S.S. United States in Hopes of Creating
Waterfront Attraction; Prince Rainier Sat 'Right There'
By JESSE PESTA
The Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2010
PHILADELPHIA—The world's fastest ocean liner is docked here and
hasn't moved under its own power in years. But in the glory days of
ocean voyages in the 1950s and 1960s, the S.S. United States was a
champion, setting a trans-Atlantic speed record on its 1952 maiden
voyage that still stands.
A Second Act?
Against the odds, a small band of ship preservationists has nosed
out scrappers with an agreement to buy the historic ocean liner—and
perhaps turn it into a stationary waterfront hotel or multi-use
development. The S.S. United States Conservancy plans to announce
Thursday a deal to buy the ship from its current owner, cruise
operator NCL Group, for $3 million.
The scrappers are at bay for now. But the proposed sale still must
satisfy Environmental Protection Agency concerns related to toxins
aboard the nearly 60-year-old steamship. If the sale goes through,
it
would cap quite a turnaround: The group of mainly volunteers
transformed themselves into a serious bidder for a Titanic-sized
vessel in just a few months as scrappers began circling their prize.
Becoming the potential owner is "an eye-opening experience for us,"
said Dan McSweeney, the conservancy's executive director.
As part of the deal, the preservationists will be picking up the
$60,000-a-month tab for upkeep of the ship in
Philadelphia, where it is currently docked.
The funding is provided by Gerry Lenfest, a Philadelphia
philanthropist. The effort to save the mothballed super-liner was
the subject of an article in The Wall Street Journal last September.
Even if the deal goes through, the ship faces a long comeback. Its
luxury fittings are long gone. The interior has been gutted to the
bare metal for asbestos abatement, and exploring the ship requires
flashlights to maneuver pitch-black passageways. Passenger cabins
are identifiable only by marks on the floor where walls used to be.
On the starboard Promenade Deck, where travelers once took the sea
air, a few tall weeds have sprung up. "That's where the geese nest,"
said caretaker Ray Griffiths during a recent tour. The geese weren't
home that day, but a duck peeked out from under some stairs.
Despite such indignities, the ship "hasn't forfeited its greatness,"
the conservancy's Mr. McSweeney said, standing near the bow. The
group is working with architectural firms, developers and city
officials on plans
to convert the "Big U," as they nickname it, into a hotel or
development in Philadelphia or New York. It has 600,000 or so square feet of
floor space, the equivalent of a modest skyscraper.
"The ship definitely will be a successful economic engine in
whatever community it finds itself in," Mr. McSweeney said. On
Thursday, the conservancy plans to light the ship at dusk and screen
a documentary there about the liner.
During the recent ship tour, conservancy member Susan Gibbs, whose
grandfather designed the vessel, described her grandmother's
memories of being aboard. "The elegance, the champagne, the light
and speed, the scotch-and-sodas at 10 a.m.," she said. "What a
majestic symbol this ship was."
Joseph Rota, who served on the ship's crew as a young man, stopped
in what used to be the first-class observation lounge and recalled a
chat with Prince Rainier of
Monaco
in the mid-1950s. "Sitting right there," Mr. Rota said, pointing to
the spot. The prince was traveling for a meeting with actress Grace
Kelly, his future wife, Mr. Rota said.
NCL bought the S.S. United States several years ago with the idea of
recapturing some of that glamour and putting the ship back in
service, offering cruises around
Hawaii. The ship collected barnacles
instead,
and then went on the block.
NCL received a larger offer of roughly $5.9 million from a scrapper,
but instead has been working with the preservationists. "We are
pleased with the current arrangement with the conservancy," an NCL
spokeswoman said. She didn't say why NCR turned down the higher bid.
The EPA has cautioned that, before the ship can be put to a new use,
it must be scrubbed of toxic PCBs that contaminate some of its
components. In a cruel irony for the preservationists, one of the
more cost-effective ways to resolve a PCB issue like this would be
to sell the ship to a U.S.-based scrapyard that is equipped to clean
it up.
The conservancy's exclusive agreement with NCL to buy expires in
February. If the sale goes through, a new clock starts ticking:
Under the agreement with Mr. Lenfest, the philanthropist, the group
has 20 months of financial support to develop a long-term plan that
would eventually make the ship financially self-supporting.
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By
Jeff Gammage
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The ship is rusted and shedding paint, its railings dented in places
and missing in others, its once-plush interior stripped to the bone.
All it needs to be a ghost ship is ghosts. But the SS United States
- its name faded but visible on the bow - is going to come back from
the dead, if its supporters have their way.
Officials announced Thursday that Philadelphia
philanthropist H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest will donate up to $5.8 million
to help save the ship, a storied but suffering ocean liner
celebrated at a ceremony Thursday night on the
Delaware River. The money will allow the
Washington-based SS United States Conservancy to buy the ship from
Norwegian Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Genting Hong Kong, and
maintain the vessel in its South Philadelphia
berth for up to 20 months while redevelopment and refurbishment
plans are completed.
The group, which has worked for years to promote the ship and
prevent its destruction, wants to turn it into a historic
attraction, permanently set on the waterfront of a major city. Dan
McSweeney, executive director of the conservancy, led a tour of the
SS United States in advance of Thursday's ship-lighting ceremony,
timed to honor the 58th anniversary of the vessel's maiden voyage,
when it set a transatlantic speed record. The funnels, bridge, radar
mast, and running lights were lit.
The ship is enormous, bigger than the Titanic, rising high above its
berth at Pier 82, over a parking lot busy with cargo haulers and big
trucks. From the bridge, the bow seems a mile away. Overhead, at the
foot of the crow's nest, the wind rips through in gusts. The
smokestacks are bigger than corn silos. From upper decks, you can
see traffic moving in South Jersey.
On one deck lies the faded outline of a shuffleboard court. The
interior is dark as night. When people are aboard, they move by
flashlight through a dusty maze of rooms, doors, and stairways. The
inside is not a shadow of its former self-there's hardly anything
left at all. Portholes are broken. The flooring is cracked and
peeling. Stray bits of wire, metal, and debris are everywhere.
At first glance, renovation seems impossible.But McSweeney says the
opposite."It's very possible, absolutely," he said. "What does it
cost to put up a new building?" Already, he said, the conservancy
has heard from developers, potential investors, and municipal
officials in New York and
Philadelphia.
The SS United States, completed in 1952, still holds the westbound
transatlantic speed record. The ship transported four men who were
or would become
U.S.
presidents, along with countless heads of state and military and
business leaders. It also brought immigrants to these shores.
William Francis Gibbs, the ship's designer, was born and raised in
North Philadelphia and Rittenhouse Square, going on to become a
well-known naval architect. Steel for the ship came from Lukens
Steel in Coatesville.
During the Cold War, the SS United States was a secret weapon,
designed to be quickly converted to a troop ship that could carry
soldiers 10,000 miles without refueling.
"I can recognize the profile," said Frank Nolan, a New York lawyer who toured the ship Thursday,
and traveled aboard it in 1968. Nolan, who is handling the sale for
the conservancy pro bono, was a University of Notre Dame student
back then, crossing the sea from New York
to France on his way to spend his sophomore year at
the University of Innsbruck in Austria. He remembers shooting skeet
off the stern, and being able to order food at any hour.
Conservancy board president Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of the ship's
designer, called Lenfest's donation "a game-changer in our work to
save this irreplaceable American icon." She also credited the ship's
owner, who "turned down higher offers to partner with us in this
patriotic effort." The ship has had numerous owners since being
removed from service in 1969. This year, Norwegian began accepting
bids from scrap firms, bringing new urgency to preservation
advocates. McSweeney said Norwegian had been offered more than $5
million from scrap companies, but was willing to sell to the
conservancy for $3 million. The Lenfest donation enables the
conservancy to enter into an exclusive purchase-option agreement
with Norwegian. Once title is transferred, the donation will provide
the conservancy with 20 months to begin development.
The group wants to establish a public-private partnership to own and
operate the ship. Plans could include stores, restaurants, museums,
and entertainment venues. Conservancy officials said the ship would
generate hundreds if not thousands of jobs during its renovation and
afterward.
"We are not out of the woods yet," McSweeney said. "Mr. Lenfest's
donation has allowed us to triage the SS United States. Now comes
the very challenging work of solidifying plans in
New York
or Philadelphia,
and that will take significant capital. . . . This is very far from
the end of the story."
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Suisun Bay's mothball fleet loses another ship
By Times-Herald, Vallejo/
Posted: 07/02/2010 01:01:51 AM PDT
The 10th ship in nearly as many months began the first leg of its
last journey Thursday morning, departing from the Suisun Bay Reserve
Fleet for San Francisco.
The latest ship to be removed from the dozens of "mothball fleet"
ships moored off Benicia's
shores was the one-time fleet oiler vessel Taluga. The ship,
launched in 1944, is of the Cimarron
class and provided combat ships with petroleum products in World War
II.
Following a paint chip and marine-growth scrubbing for the ship in a San Francisco dry dock, the ship will be towed to Texas for dismantling.
The Taluga is the last of a three-ship disposal contract, beginning
with the troop ship General John Pope and the bulk tanker Gettysburg in May.
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Published: Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
A
day-long, intensive tour of the guns and fire control systems of the
Battleship North Carolina Memorial, including areas not normally
open to the public, will be offered on June 12.
Tickets
are still available for the “Fire on Target!” program, which will
run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Battleship staff members and volunteers will offer an in-depth,
bottom-to-top explanation of the inner workings of the World War
II-era battleship.
Included will be detailed explanations of the USS North Carolina’s
16-inch and 5-inch gun batteries, its 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft
guns (and the 1.10 and 50 caliber guns which these larger units
replaced) and its Voight OS2U Kingfisher floatplane.
Also on
the program will be the ship’s Combat Information Center, the fire
control tower and the Sky 3 5-inch gun director. Participants will
have a rare look at the secondary battery plot and its mechanical
analog computers, which directed fire from the North Carolina’s
5-inch guns.
A lunch
will be served, and participants will receive a CD of data and
images, said Mary Ames Booker, the battleship’s director of
collections.
Fee for
the event is $95 per person, $85 for members of the Friends of the
Battleship. Participants must be 16 or older and must be able to
climb stairs and navigate through hatches.
June 4 is the deadline to register. To register or get more
information, call 251-5797.
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Fairview supports USS Ranger idea
Foundation encouraged by city’s interest in docking carrier
By Shannon Wells
The Gresham Outlook, May 25, 2010
The Fairview City Council has embraced the idea of
permanently docking a retired aircraft carrier in the city at
Chinook Landing on the Columbia River.
The council unanimously passed a resolution at its Wednesday, May
19, meeting endorsing Chinook Landing off Northeast 223rd Avenue as
a possible location for the USS Ranger, a 56,300-ton ship docked in
Bremerton, Wash.
City officials are working with the Portland-based USS Ranger
Foundation to facilitate the ship’s move from Bremerton, where it’s
been docked since being mothballed in 1993, to Chinook Landing,
which is operated by Metro Regional Government. Metro hasn’t yet
officially weighed in on the project.
The foundation has lobbied for five years for a Portland-area
location for the carrier, which played a key Pacific Fleet role in
Naval defense operations from 1957 to 1993. The foundation has a
limited amount of time to find a suitable location for the
pristinely preserved ship before the U.S. Navy scraps it.
Ideas being discussed for the mammoth ship include using it as a
home for a history museum, a community center, restaurants and
banquet facilities, aircraft simulators, an emergency communications
center and – by using the craft’s 60 hospital rooms – an emergency
shelter.
While keeping other sites, including three on the Willamette River
in Portland, on the table, foundation members are encouraged by
Fairview’s embrace of the concept.
“We are still looking at other sites until we can make a final
determination for the best location,” said Shannon Chisom, the USS
Ranger Foundation’s director of development. “But the enthusiasm in
East County is making us stop and pay attention.
“There are challenges,” she added, “But I’m not going to say they
can’t be overcome.”
In recent presentations to the council, the East Metro Economic
Alliance and the Five Cities meeting on Thursday, May 20, at
Fairview City Hall, Chisom touted the Ranger’s possibilities.
Larry Schmul, Ranger foundation program director, noted the USS
Intrepid in New York Harbor served as a backup emergency
communications center when the city’s facility in the World Trade
Center was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“This is a major project,” Chisom said, noting that a feasibility
study based on Chinook Landing is being prepared. “Part of bringing
it to East County will depend on the financial support” from the
city and residents.
City officials are working with the foundation to determine what
costs and responsibilities, including aspects such as a pier to dock
the Ranger, might fall to the city and Metro.
As part of a detailed presentation at the Five Cities meeting,
Schmul pointed out the importance of saving the Ranger. With the USS
Saratoga and Independence carriers scrapped, the Ranger is the last
well-preserved, non-nuclear powered vessel that can be repurposed.
“None of the nuclear-powered ships will be available for donation,”
he said, noting the Navy is willing to donate the ship at no cost
and give it a thorough physical inspection each year it’s in
service. “(It’s) a jewel of a ship to be taken care of.”
Councilor Barb Jones said she’s been impressed with the
presentations and is convinced the project would benefit the entire
area.
“I think it would be the best thing ever for East County,” she said.
“It would boost our economy in more ways than we could ever count
on. It would be amazing to have it there.”
To donate or learn more about the project, visit ussranger.org.
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We have
added three new manuals to the web site:
http://hnsa.org/doc/index.htm#guns
Computer Mark 1 and
Mods (with Computer Mark 1A Addendum), Ordnance Pamphlet 1064, 1945
(1951 Addendum), describes the fire control computer used on guns
from 5" to 16" aboard US Navy ships of WW II.
http://hnsa.org/doc/computermk1/index.htm
Computer Mark 1 and
Mods. Maintenance Volume 1, Ordnance Pamphlet 1064A, 1947, is the
first half of the maintenance manual for the Mark 1 computer.
http://hnsa.org/doc/computermk1-maint-vol1/index.htm
Stable Element Mark 6
Ordnance Pamphlet 1063, 1944, describes the stable element that
determines the pitch and roll of the ship and supplies this to the
fire control computer.
http://hnsa.org/doc/stablemk6/index.htm
Note that these were
used on pretty much every large surface ship (BB, CV, CL, DD, etc.)
in the USN during WW II on guns from 5" to 16".
Pass the word!
Rich Pekelney
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The cruiser
Aurora marks 110th birthday
May 11, 2010
Voice of Russia
Russia’s
legendary cruiser, the Aurora, marks its 110th birthday. Being the
only museum ship, the Aurora remains afloat since the early 20th
century. The cruiser took part in the Russo-Japanese war, in WWI and
in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1921. On 25 October 1917, a blank
shot from her forecastle gun marked the beginning of the assault on
the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg (then Petrograd), which was
the start of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The Aurora became a
museum in 1950. However, it remains the No.1 ship of the Russian
Navy.
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Oldest US
lightship comes home to Boston
By Peter Schworm, Boston Globe Staff | May 12, 2010
For
nearly 40 years, the Nantucket Lightship LV-112 shone the way home,
guiding countless ships past the treacherous Nantucket Shoals. But
after it was decommissioned in the 1970s, the vessel bounced from
port to port like a vagabond, unable to find safe harbor.
Under a brilliant blue sky yesterday, the storied vessel, the oldest
and largest lightship ever built in the United States, finally
returned to its home port of Boston, for the first time since it was
decommissioned in 1975.
“She’s back,’’ said Robert Mannino Jr., who bought the aging ship in
October for $1 after learning it was in danger of being sold for
scrap. “Where she should be.’’
Mannino, a 58-year-old marketing consultant from New Hampshire who
grew up sailing and became an avid shipwreck diver, said he couldn’t
allow the floating beacon to be destroyed. He hopes to restore it
and convert it to a permanent museum and educational center.
“We want people to learn from it,’’ he said. “To really see what
lightship life is like.’’
Built in 1936, the 150-foot Nantucket once sailed from the Coast
Guard station in Boston Harbor to the rough waters off Nantucket,
where it safeguarded the trans-Atlantic shipping lanes. Stationed
more than 100 miles out to sea, the red-hulled ship was the most
remote manned lighthouse on earth.
Its signal, as strong as 500,000 candles, could pierce the densest
Nantucket fog, and in clear weather it could be seen 50 miles away.
For approaching ships, the beacon was the first greeting from the
Eastern Seaboard, a comforting sign that the long passage was nearly
at an end.
Yet after a celebrated career, the Nantucket seemed resigned to
obscurity in its retirement, and slowly fell into disrepair. It was
designated a national historic landmark in 1989, but for the past
eight years wound up moored at the town pier in Oyster Bay, N.Y., as
a would-be flagship for a stalled maritime museum.
“The irony is that this is the most famous US lightship ever built,
yet it’s the most orphaned,’’ Mannino said.
As the ship sat idle, a New York maritime preservation group
searched for a suitable owner who would restore the 1,000-ton titan
to its former glory. Mannino, after reading an August 2008 Boston
Globe article about the Nantucket, decided to take up the cause.
“I couldn’t bear to see such a maritime treasure disappear,’’ he
said from the deck of the timeworn but still sturdy Nantucket
yesterday, shortly after docking at a pier beside the Charlestown
Navy Yard.
The ship, after some $125,000 in repairs, was able to be towed from
Long Island through the Cape Cod Canal over the past two days.
Mannino will move the ship today to East Boston, where it will
remain while he raises money for more extensive renovations. He
estimates that a full renovation would cost about $850,000, which he
hopes to raise through grants and private donations.
“It just needs some TLC,’’ he said, pointing to some peeled paint
and patches of rust. “It’s in reasonably good condition for a vessel
that’s been neglected as long as it has.’’
Overall, 179 lightships were built between 1820 and 1952, according
to the United States Lightship Museum, a nonprofit group Mannino has
established. At one point, 56 lightships were stationed at various
locations around the country. Today, 17 lightships exist, eight as
museums.
Mannino said he hopes the ship can take its place in Charlestown
among other historic landmarks.
Life on the Nantucket was not for the faint of heart. Indeed, it was
built after its predecessor, the LV-117, was destroyed by the
passenger liner Olympic, killing seven crew members. The Nantucket
carries a plaque in their memory.
Peter Brunk, who commanded the Nantucket in the early 1970s, gave
his young granddaughter a tour of the hulking ship, taking her from
the giant anchors and engines to the galley and officers’ quarters.
Now 73, Brunk said his visit was bringing back a lot of memories,
most of them bad. Storms that churned up 70-foot seas, blinding fog,
and the ear-splitting horn. “I never thought I’d be celebrating
it,’’ he said with a chuckle. “It was not a good job. ’’Still, Brunk
was happy to see the creaky old ship end its journey where it began.
“This is where it needs to be,’’ he said.
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New
masts for HMS Belfast made in Russian shipyard
Sunday 9 May 2010
London SE1 website team
Two new masts for HMS Belfast - to replace the rusting originals -
were last week completed in a Russian shipyard, it was announced on
Sunday during Victory Day celebrations on board the ship.
The Russian Ambassador Yury Fedotov came to HMS Belfast on Sunday
afternoon to present medals to British veterans of
the Arctic Convoys and to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of
the Second World War in Europe.
He was joined at the ceremony by the security minister Admiral Lord
West, a former First Sea Lord.
The event's organiser, Eugene Kasevin, read out a message from the
Queen's private secretary: "Please convey the Queen's good wishes to
all those attending the 2010 Russia-Britain VE Day celebration on
board HMS Belfast today. Her Majesty hopes that this significant
occasion is both successful and memorable to all concerned."
Phil Reed, the new director of HMS Belfast, described the gathering
as a "truly glorious occasion".
"This ship played a major part in delivering relief to the Russian
armed forces and the Russian people in the Arctic Convoys," he said.
"These people before us are heroic survivors of that struggle. We're
here today to commemorate that effort."
He welcomed Andrei Fomachev, director of the Severnaya Verf shipyard
which has made the new masts for HMS Belfast, and described the
Anglo-Russian collaboration on the restoration of the cruiser as "a
great occasion for our two countries".
Igor Serov, of the Joint Industrial Corporation, told guests at the
ceremony: "I'm happy to report that the new masts were finished on 7
May and will shortly be on their way to London. We hope to finish
the reconstruction by the end of the summer."
He presented HMS Belfast's director Phil Reed with a gift to mark
the occasion: a marine chronometer in a setting designed by Viscount
Linley.
Music at the ceremony was provided by the Royal Signals Band and a
flute quartet from the Royal Masonic School for Girls. After the
Russian and British national anthems were played a gun salute was
fired from Belfast's 4-inch guns.
The Russia House, based in Borough High Street, was among the
sponsors of the event.
Earlier in the day a separate Victory Day commemoration had been
held at Southwark's Soviet War Memorial.
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May 09, 2010 2:00 AM
PORTSMOUTH — Twenty-five years ago, USS Albacore made
its last journey to its resting place on Market Street.
On May 4, 1985, the 1,200-ton submarine maneuvered
through a dismantled railroad bridge and a cut in a four-lane road,
was floated into position and on Oct. 2, 1985, was set on a concrete
cradle at the center of Albacore Park.
"Thousands of people" gathered to watch, said Norman
Bower, who witnessed the move from Memorial Bridge. Bower, a
crewmate of Albacore, was supposed to ride the submarine for the
move but was unable to make it to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard because
of the traffic that day. Albacore had rested at the shipyard for one
year before her move after returning to New Hampshire from
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in September 1972.
"Riding the sub was what you wanted to be doing that
day," Bower said.
Albacore was built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the
first Navy-designed vessel with a true underwater cylindrical-shaped
hull, which has become the standard for today's submarines. Albacore
served from 1953 to 1972 without ever carrying a weapon or going to
war. Albacore, which was built for experimental purposes, was used
for testing control systems, dive brakes, sonar equipment, escape
mechanisms and various innovative theories.
The submarine was moved to Market Street — a parcel
just under 10 acres — with the intention of creating a maritime
museum there. Albacore Park opened in August 1986 and the foundation
for a museum was even subsequently dug, but the museum has yet to be
constructed.
Businessman and philanthropist Joe Sawtelle, who
worked tirelessly to move Albacore to Market Street and envisioned
the maritime museum there, passed away 10 years ago. With his death,
went his dreams of the museum, said members of the Port of
Portsmouth Maritime Museum Association.
"When he died, there wasn't really anybody else in
the family who wanted to carry on the drive for a museum," said
PPMMA member Russ Van Billiard. "Joe was a real student of maritime
related things. That was really his passion. If he had stayed alive,
he would have found a way to do it. He found a way to do this
(Albacore Park)."
PPMMA, which manages Albacore Park and owns the site,
last year covered the museum's unused foundation. "It was a
monstrosity and a danger to kids," Van Billiard said.
While PPMMA would love to see a use come to the
unused piece of the property — notably another nonprofit
organization — the trouble comes down to money and interest. Before
Sawtelle's death, plans for the Portsmouth Children's Museum to
build on the property fell through as did a proposal for the Greater
Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce to join with the United Way of the
Greater Seacoast there.
"It's a shame. This would have been an ideal place,
Van Billiard said, adding the city is in the process of
reinvigorating the Market Street area around Albacore Park, with an
eye toward creating a gateway entrance to Portsmouth. "It's too
bad."
When the chamber was looking at the property, plans
included a display room for maritime mementos, Van Billiard said.
While there is currently a "mini-museum" at Albacore Park, he said,
it could house so many more items if there were just more space.
There is also a small maritime museum at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,
but Van Billiard said it is unfortunately not accessible by the
general public.
Van Billiard said the PPMMA still hopes something
will happen with the property, but it cannot afford to build itself.
"If somebody stepped up and said we'd like to come up
with something, and we felt they were a good candidate, we would be
very interested in working something out with them," he said.
PPMMA members said they are struggling themselves to
"rejuvenate" the park. In the past year, they have repaved the
parking lot, repaired outside lights and fixed a roof leak in the
building. Projects are funded through two sources — routine
maintenance expenses are funded through the park's income from
visitors and members while larger projects, such as repairing the
roof leak, are funded through an endowment from the New Hampshire
Charitable Foundation.
PPMMA members estimate Albacore Park brings in
$105,000 to $115,000 annually, with approximately 22,000 visitors a
year. In addition to supporting routine maintenance, this supports
the park's one permanent employee and one seasonal part-time
employee.
PPMMA receives $25,000 to $30,000 quarterly from the
endowment, which according to guidelines must go toward maintenance
and upkeep of the property. This appropriation is new to the PPMMA
within recent years.
"Now that we have this coming in quarterly, we can
begin to say we have this much we're accruing and how much money
needs to be spent," Van Billiard said. "It's a lifesaver for us."
Friends of the Albacore, a group of the submarine's
former sailors, also support making the park a better place to
visit, Bower said. The group recently installed a push-button system
through the park, where visitors can hit red buttons at various
stations of Albacore and hear crew members tell the story.
"They tell you what went on there and what went
wrong," Bower said. "Most of the people who tour the boat have never
seen a submarine outside, much less inside. We started with tour
guides and it became difficult to have that many people inside. Now
people can come in on their own and hear and see what happened
inside."
PPMMA is in the process of ranking other maintenance
projects that will be required in coming years. For instance, the
banking on the starboard side of Albacore is giving way and will
need to be reconstructed. PPMMA is having a company evaluate the
scope of that work and how much it would cost.
It's a labor of love for PPMMA members who enjoy
continuing to showcase Albacore for members of the community and
beyond.
"It's really a monument to the guys that operated it,
the people that built it at the shipyard and the people that
designed it. All of them," Van Billiard said. "People can't visit
the shipyard, but you can come here and learn a lot about what
happened there."
Albacore Park includes a visitor's center with books
and submarine gifts. Adjacent is the Memorial Garden, a tribute to
all crew and officers who have been lost in the submarine service.
At a glance
A Memorial Day Service will be held at Albacore
Park's Memorial Garden beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, May 31.
On
May 21-23, surviving Albacore crewmates will visit Portsmouth for a
reunion that includes a visit to the submarine, casual
get-togethers, and a tour of the shipyard.
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By Edward Colimore
The Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer
May 9,
2010
The Battleship New Jersey, a Camden waterfront
attraction that has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors since
2001, is facing a fight it may not win if Gov. Christie's state
budget is adopted.
The
ship's state aid was reduced during the last few years from $3.4
million annually to $1.7 million. Now its dedicated funding - nearly
40 percent of its budget - has been eliminated from the governor's
spending plan.
The
museum would have to compete with more than 60 historical societies,
museums, and sites for a share of $2.7 million dispensed by the New
Jersey Historical Commission, the same amount the organization
oversaw this fiscal year. The average grant by the commission was
about $62,000.
"I
don't know if we'd have to close, but we're in a tough spot," said
Jim Schuck, president and chief executive officer of the battleship.
"If we have more cuts, I don't know what the ship will look like. It
will not be what it is now."
Lost in
the debate about teachers' pay and school budgets totaling hundreds
of millions of dollars is the effect that Christie's spending plan
would have on history, arts, and cultural organizations that already
have slashed staffs, programs, and hours because of earlier aid
cuts.
Some
are bracing for possible bankruptcy or closure as the Christie
administration pushes for reductions to address a nearly $11 billion
state deficit.
In
Trenton, the Old Barracks Museum, a state-owned Revolutionary War
site visited by schoolchildren from every county, may have to shut
if the $375,000 from its budget line item - a grant that funds an
institution specifically - is not replaced. The money is 45 percent
of the museum's budget.
"Basically, we're being asked to roll over and die," said Richard
Patterson, executive director of the Old Barracks. "How do you put a
price on a state's soul?"
Nonhistorical attractions also have been affected. The state
canceled its operations agreement with the Camden City Garden Club,
operator of the Camden Children's Garden, and failed to pay more
than $416,000 for the period from Nov. 1 through next month.
Christie's budget, which would take effect July 1, would eliminate
the nonprofit's annual $625,000 direct state services grant for
operations and maintenance. The money is about 40 percent of the
garden's budget.
"We
can't do the things we used to do," said Mike Devlin, the garden's
executive director. "We're crippled."
The
proposed budget "honors all legislatively recommended minimal
funding levels" for the state Historical Commission ($2.7 million),
Council for the Arts ($16 million), Division of Travel and Tourism
($9 million), and Cultural Trust ($500,000), Michael Drewniak, the
governor's spokesman, said in a statement last
month. Those groups would dole the money, which comes from the state
hotel-motel tax, to programs and institutions.
"Eliminating line items is the most effective way to ensure
fairness," Drewniak said. "Every arts and historic venue and
organization will now have to compete on a level playing field for
state funding."
The
change, which effectively would cut available money by half, is
coming too quickly, said officials in the history, arts, and
cultural communities.
"The
best-case scenario would be for the governor's plan to be phased in
over a multiyear period," said B. Michael Zuckerman, director of the
Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities in Cape May and
president of Advocates for New Jersey History.
"To
eliminate all line items and expect the Historical Commission to
support the whole community would be a recipe for disaster," he
said. "We hope, in the short run, that the Legislature will
reinstate the line items."
Under
the Christie budget, five organizations - including the battleship
and the Old Barracks - would lose line-item grants totaling $2.8
million and have to apply for the aid distributed by the Historical
Commission. Some could be shut out because of the larger field of
applicants.
"We
can't sit back and let some of our premier historical organizations
go down the tubes," Zuckerman said. "We are looking at the gravest
threat that we have witnessed in a generation."
One
group that depends on the Historical Commission for funding is the
New Jersey Historical Society in Newark. It has received annual
grants of more than $200,000, but could find itself competing
against the battleship and Old Barracks.
"It
would be lethal for organizations to share the same pot of money,"
said Linda Caldwell Epps, president and CEO of the society, who has
already cut its staff from 30 to fewer than 10. "It's another
example of New Jersey not taking pride in its heritage."
"I
don't know how we can continue," she said. "We're all feeling
devastated. We're bracing ourselves for what we hope will not
happen."
Many
organizations have scaled back operations to stay within
ever-shrinking budgets. The Battleship New Jersey laid off 12
workers in January and now has five full-time salaried employees,
plus a handful of hourly people in security and maintenance. The
ship had 52 full-time employees in 2006.
"One of
the people we laid off was a painter," Schuck said. "If I had the
money, I'd have five painters. The winter beat the heck out the
ship. We have a lot of rust spots."
The
battleship has tried to raise money through camps, tours, and events
including live music, fireworks, beer fests, and wine tastings.
Battleship Red and Battleship White wines, produced by Auburn Road
Vineyard & Winery in Salem County, are available at catered
gatherings.
Nearby,
the Camden Children's Garden also has felt the pinch. The hours of
30 workers have been trimmed from 40 to 28, and the days of
operation were cut from five a week last year to three this year.
The
proposed changes came after Christie recognized the group's
community garden and youth programs with a Community Hero Award at
his inauguration.
"It's
disappointing," Devlin said. "This is not a fair cut."
The Old
Barracks Museum has reduced its staff from 22 six years ago to 15.
Patterson, the executive director who also serves as curator and
director of development, temporarily furloughed himself.
"We've
gotten through two world wars and the Great Depression," he said.
"Now the museum could disappear without people paying attention
because of the huge crisis this administration is facing.
If the
budget proposal stands, "we go bankrupt," Patterson said. Instead of
$375,000, "take away $100,000, and we'll figure out a way to not
completely die."
In
Moorestown, the Perkins Center for the Arts has been economizing,
too. It has left two full-time positions unfilled and is getting by
with a staff of 11 plus four part-timers. "We've tightened up
everything," executive director Alan Willoughby said.
At the
Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities, four jobs have been
eliminated in a year and a half, and wages were cut 10 percent.
"This
has been a very tough year for our organization," Zuckerman said.
"We're hoping for an upturn, but we're having to be cautious as we
project the revenue coming in."
Schuck
remains hopeful as he works at the Battleship New Jersey that the
state will reverse itself. The site had received $1.7 million, but
according to state figures, he said, it returns $9.2 million to the
economy.
"I
really think it's an oversight," he said. "They're looking to cut
and don't understand the consequences."
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Fund Aims To Save
S.S. United States
Historic Ship Could Be Reinvented, Group Says
My Fox Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA - Here's an update on "Good Day's" plan to save the
S.S. United States – the one-time gem of the high seas that you
drive by every day while it rots docked at pier 89 in South Philly.
Last week, "Good Day" concocted the idea of turning the ship into a
casino.
Now, Fox 29's Mike Jerrick is in a panic because the ship's owner,
Genting Hong Kong Ltd., has the ship up for sale – for scrap! Steve
Keeley spoke Friday morning with two people who don't want to see
that happen. They want the vessel saved and shiny again like it was
from 1952 to 1969, when it set the record for going back-and-forth
between the U.S. and England in high style.
A fundraiser is being planned to help buy the ship.
Susan Gibbs, the granddaughter of the man who designed the ship,
William Francis Gibbs, contacted Fox 29 News.
"We are cautiously optimistic," Gibbs said on the odds of seeing the
S.S. United States saved. "The ship is, obviously, facing long odds
but we think that Philadelphia will appreciate what an extraordinary
national treasure is here in its midst. And we have seen people from
around the country, really around the world, beginning to realize
just what an amazing ship we have right here in Philadelphia."
Dan McSweeney, whose father was a steward on the ship, also heard
that "Good Day" talked about it last week.
McSweeney, of the S.S. United States Conservancy, thinks this could
be more than a labor of love and serve an important purpose.
"Absolutely, this is both a patriotic and a practical effort,"
McSweeney said. "Clearly this is an irreplaceable symbol of America,
and that's very, very important. However, the practical side is that
this could provide a lot of jobs here in Philadelphia in terms of
how the ship is refurbished and in terms of hospitality or service
jobs that could emerge."They admit the ship will need to be
reinvented, likely no longer going on any transatlantic voyages, and
it will take a lot of work.
"But we are very excited about opportunities to preserve its
historical legacy, create a maritime museum, as well as … provide
jobs, provide condos – reinvent it as this fantastic economic engine
and historical icon here in Philly," Gibb said.
The controversial Foxwoods Casino project planned for farther up the
Delaware River has been stalled for four years. That's how "Good
Day" started talking about the ship.
Would the conservancy be open to that possibility?
"I think it's certainly on the table," Gibbs said. "A casino, there
was actually gambling onboard the vessel in the heyday. They used to
have these elaborate pools to bet on how many miles the ship
traveled each day. The casino, obviously, we'd want to work very
closely with neighborhood civic associations, and it could be part
of the package in refurbishing the ship. … We'd love to talk with
people about it further."
McSweeney said they kicked off three months ago a "Save Our Ship
Campaign," which is a national fund-raising and public-awareness
effort.
So far, they have raised over $50,000. For more information, you can
check out ssusplankowner.org .
"Essentially, what we're doing is creating a public-private
partnership that can help look at how this ship can be saved, how it
can be repurposed.
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USS Saratoga: Museum plans scrapped, ship faces same fate
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
By PAUL POST, The Saratogian
SARATOGA SPRINGS – The navy has scuttled plans to make the USS
Saratoga a museum in favor of another more modern aircraft carrier,
the USS John F. Kennedy.
The Saratoga, now docked in Newport, R.I., will almost certainly be
scrapped.
Six ships have been named Saratoga in American naval history – three
sailing ships from the Revolution, War of 1812 and Civil War,
respectively, a cruiser and two aircraft carriers.
"Every ship named Saratoga has had a strong presence in the history
of this nation," said Larry Gordon of Wilton, the unofficial USS
Saratoga historian. "It isn’t like we’re losing the ship. You can’t
destroy the history."
The latest Saratoga was launched in 1956 and decommissioned in 1994
after serving in Desert Storm.
"In its time, the Saratoga was the big bad boy out there," Gordon
said. "It’s always been there."
In October 1962, it was the main U.S. ship that enforced a blockade
of Soviet ships headed to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In
1986, it was the carrier from which U.S. fighter jets carried out an
attack against Libya.
Capt. Douglas Dupouy USN Ret., of Greenfield, was commanding officer
of an F-14 fighter jet squadron aboard the Saratoga during Desert
Storm in 1991.
"There was something special about the Saratoga, something about the
quality of the crew, the professionalism, the ability to get things
done," he said. "That was always very prevalent. I’ve been on a lot
of carriers. That was one of the better ones. It would be a sad day
to see it scrapped."
The Saratoga was towed to Newport in August 1998 and a foundation
spent considerable time trying to raise money and convert the ship
into a floating museum. Last fall, however, the navy decided not to
donate it for such purposes because of the ship’s deterioration.
Now, the foundation wants to bring the newer, more modern John F.
Kennedy to Newport, because of that ship’s obvious ties to New
England. President John F. Kennedy was married in Newport in
September 1953 and "Cape Cod and Hyannis Port are just around the
corner," Dupouy said.
Also, the late president’s nephew, Patrick, is a U.S. representative
from Rhode Island.
Gordon said three possible fates await the Saratoga. It could be
sold for scrap, demolished as part of a military exercise or sunk to
create an artificial reef. Any of the three options would take
considerable time to carry out, so people will still be able to see
the ship for at least the next several years, perhaps longer.
Preliminary plans call for including some Saratoga memorabilia
aboard the Kennedy when that ship becomes a museum.
From mid-1989 to mid-1990, the Saratoga was in Jacksonville, Fla.
being prepared for its next scheduled deployment to the Middle East.
America’s carrier fleet rotates on a regular basis.
"We were scheduled to go on Aug. 7 (1990)," Dupouy said. "Then Iraq
invaded Kuwait on Aug. 3. We were primed, locked and loaded, ready
to go. Desert Storm was a very significant part of my navy career.
My first two cruises were aboard the John F. Kennedy. My memories of
Saratoga are definitely fonder."
The Saratoga replaced the USS Eisenhower in the Middle East during
Desert Storm, which came back to America for maintenance. From 2000
to 2002, Dupouy was commanding officer of the USS Lincoln, one of
the newest class of carriers.
Previously, carriers were named after major battles including
Saratoga, Lexington, Coral Sea. Now, the newest ones are named after
presidents such as Reagan and Bush.
The first USS Saratoga was launched in 1780 during the American
Revolution. Its crew was comprised of privateers who would capture
British ships. They got to keep the bounty as a reward, with the
understanding the British crew would be returned to land unharmed.
The second Saratoga played a major role in Battle of Plattsburgh –
on Sept. 11, 1814 – that helped determine the outcome of the War of
1812.
The third served during the Civil War and blocked slave ships going
from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. Later, it became part of
Commodore Perry’s Asiatic fleet used in the opening of Japan. The
fourth was a cruiser, launched as the USS New York, renamed the USS
Saratoga, and renamed once again the USS Rochester. It was sunk the
day after Pearl Harbor Day in the Philippines to prevent its capture
by the Japanese.
The fifth Saratoga (CV-3) served with distinction during World War
II and was later sunk at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific as part
of an atomic blast test. It is now an underwater national landmark.
The sixth and latest is the one now in Newport, where Dupouy works
as a consultant to the navy.
"I drive by and can see it every day," he said. "Powers higher than
me are making this decision."
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Suisun Bay mothball fleet losing another ship in recycling effort
Times-Herald staff report/
Posted: 05/05/2010 01:03:32 AM PDT
BENICIA -- The Suisun Bay mothball fleet is scheduled to lose
another ship early this morning.
The General John Pope will be transported out of the Suisun Bay
Reserve Fleet north of Benicia about 7:30 a.m. today.
This is the seventh vessel to be transported out of the mothball
fleet for cleaning and recycling.
The World War II-era ship, a P2 "General" class type troop ship, was
built in 1943, and was operated by the U.S. Navy during the war
before it was transferred to the U.S. Army and given its current
name.
The ship later served in the Korean and Vietnam wars as a
civilian-manned military sea transportation service vessel until it
was placed in the mothball fleet in 1970.
The vessel will have its loose paint and other exterior "marine
growth" removed at a ship repair facility in San Francisco prior to
departure for Texas where it will be recycled.
Future vessels to be removed from the fleet include the following --
the Gettysburg, a liquid bulk tanker, formerly the Exxon Gettysburg,
on
May 21; and the Taluga, formerly the USS Taluga (AO-62), a Navy
fleet oiler, on July 1.
The ships, moving steadily out since October, are among the more
than 50 obsolete vessels in the fleet scheduled for removal.
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Slater opens for
season
First published: Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Albany Times Union
ALBANY-- A tugboat helped move the USS Slater from its winter berth
on the Rensselaer side of the Hudson River on Saturday to its
upgraded summer moorage at the city's Snow Dock.
Tours are scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
Volunteers pulled lines and secured the 306-foot, 1,240-ton
destroyer escort, the only one of 563 built during World War II that
is still afloat and on display in North America.
The Slater is moored at its new steel pilings, which were driven
deep into bedrock this spring. It is far enough from shore that the
ship will not become mired in the river's muddy bottom during low
tide on the
estuary. The pilings replaced heavy wooden platforms that kept the
ship in deeper water but had to be moved each spring and winter.
The Slater, built in 1944, was decommissioned two years later after
escorting ships and hunting submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific.
It moved to Albany in 1997. .
The Slater will be open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. Admission is $7 adults, $6 seniors and $5 for children 6-14.
Children under 5 are free.
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USS
LST-393 warship spruced up and ready for visitors
By Muskegon Chronicle staff
April 29, 2010, 5:58AM
Visitors to the USS LST-393, the World War II ship
moored at the Mart Dock, will see many new exhibits and veteran
tributes when the museum opens for the season Saturday. She also
sports a sparkling new paint job throughout the exhibitions halls.
“LST-393 is spruced up and ready for the thousands of visitors that
come to see her,” said Dan Weikel, president of the LST-393
Preservation Association. “We will continue the mission of honoring
America’s
veterans and teaching generations of visitors about their
sacrifices.”
Kicking off the six-month season will be the Kentucky Derby party
Saturday starting at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20.
Last year, more than 15,000 visitors from 37 states toured the ship
and many more attended the numerous ship events, making LST-393 one
of the top attractions in Muskegon. This year, the ship will host
community celebrations, private parties, veteran tributes, youth
group overnight sleepovers, dances, class reunions, 1st Marine
Division re-enactors encampment, an Armed Forces Day Memorial
Service, three Orchard View Travelers travelogues, graduation
parties, military reunions, … and five wedding receptions.
“This ship can do it all,” said Weikel. “She helped win a war and
made transportation history as a car ferry. Now she’s one of the top
reasons people visit Muskegon.”
Among the new exhibits is the “Hall of Uniforms.” Three compartments
of the ship have been revamped for a display of authentic uniforms
donated by Muskegon veterans. They represent all branches of the
armed forces and have come from veterans of five wars and seven
decades of service.
Also new is the “Homefront Muskegon” display, honoring those who
supported the troops at home. The display shows a typical Muskegon
kitchen scene in 1943, complete with period appliances, furniture,
foods and publications.
“Millions served overseas in World War II, but many stayed home and
fought ‘The Battle of Muskegon’,” said Weikel. “We honor their
sacrifices too.”
The Vietnam Memorial Wall honors those from West Michigan who gave
their all for their country in Southeast Asia. The wall contains a
unique collection of Vietnam War memorabilia as well as the photos
of the more than 50 Muskegon County service personnel who died. Also
honored are servicemen who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The cavernous “tank deck” inside the ship has been cleaned and
repainted, and new indoor bathroom facilities have been built.
Upgraded displays inside tell the stories of the soldiers and
sailors who served aboard LSTs. The “Airpower” display offers many
artifacts and models from America’s wars. There is also a library
and reading room focused on military history and a video room to
watch documentaries.
The ship’s bridge is newly restored, providing a highlight to any
visitor’s top deck tour. Also above decks are the restored galley,
officers’ quarters and wardroom, sick bay and mess deck.
Volunteers are always on hand to answer questions about the ship and
the museum displays. A large gift shop offers a variety of ship
mementos.
The 393 is a “landing ship, tank” (LST) vessel built in 1942. She
has three battle stars and made 30 round trips to Omaha Beach during
the invasion of Normandy, delivering weapons of war. Sold as surplus
in 1948 to Sand Products Inc., owners of West Michigan Dock and
Market in Muskegon, she was converted to a cross-lake ferry called
Highway 16 and was a fixture on Lake Michigan for three decades. She
was retired from service in 1979.
Twenty years later, local enthusiasts who knew of her gallant
history began the process of restoring the ship to its military
appearance with the aim of creating a museum honoring Muskegon’s
veterans. The USS LST-393 Preservation Association took over the
duty in 2004 and the all-volunteer organization has been working
year-round ever since to restore the ship and fulfill the mission.
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Corvette Sackville a WWII throwback
By
LORNA INNESS, The Chronicle Herald
Published: 2010-05-02
In
his classic book, Far Distant Ships, an official account of Canadian
naval operations in the Second World War, Joseph Schull describes an
attack on a North Atlantic convoy in September 1942.
One
of the escorts, HMCS Sackville, pursued a U-boat, dropping its depth
charges. The sub’s bow rose out of the water and then settled back
out of sight. Within an hour, another sub appeared and Sackville was
in pursuit. This time, shell and machine-gun fire forced the U-boat
to dive. These instances were recorded as "possible" and "probable
kills" but the important thing was that the submarines were forced
to abandon their attacks on the convoy Sackville was escorting.
It
was not Sackville’s last call to action stations. The corvette
served until the war’s end in May 1945. In all, the ship was
credited with disabling three U-boats.
Sackville was built in Saint John, N.B., in 1941. Its construction
was part of a massive building program that saw 56 corvettes of its
class produced in shipyards across Canada in that year alone. The
ship was part of "the working core" that served the convoy escort
service and is a wartime survivor.
Unlike so many of its sister ships, which were sold off after the
war and eventually ended up in scrap yards, Sackville had a second
career as a research support ship for the Bedford Institute of
Oceanography.
Fast
forward to 2010. As the celebrations for the centenary of the Royal
Canadian Navy get underway, the Sackville takes pride of place as
the last of its kind. It is not only a national historic site but
Canada’s naval memorial.
It
is in this way that its present day role differs from that of HMCS
Haida, another ship with noteworthy wartime service. Haida is also a
national historic site. It is government-owned and the
responsibility of Heritage Canada.
A
Tribal class destroyer, Haida was built in Britain. The ship is well
remembered for its role in rescuing some of the crew of HMCS
Athabaskan when that destroyer was sunk in action off France on
April 26, 1944.
Haida’s peacetime career originally found it berthed at Ontario
Place in Toronto. In August 2003, after an extensive $5-million
refit, the destroyer was established at its present berth, Pier 9,
in Hamilton.
Sackville is owned and operated by the Canadian Naval Memorial
Trust, set up in the 1980s. As its first lieutenant, Jim Reddy, a
retired lieutenant-commander, describes it, "There was a whole
generation of guys who had wartime experience and who worked to
raise the money necessary to establish the Trust."
Membership, at $75 annually or $1,000 for a life membership (both
tax deductible), is on the increase with over 1,000 members on the
books. Most of these are in the Maritimes but there are others
scattered across Canada.
"There is a renewed interest on the part of children and
grandchildren of wartime corvette sailors. They want to understand
what this whole naval wartime effort was about," said Reddy.
Chairman of the trust is John Jay, a retired naval architect, and
Sackville’s commanding officer is Cmdr. Wendall Brown, also a
retired career naval officer. Much of the organization’s success has
been due to its strong complement of dedicated volunteers.
"For
them," says Reddy, "it’s a give back project. They supply the
‘horsepower.’ "
Crucial, he says, is the "tremendous support" the ship receives from
the navy, which supplies tugs that move the Sackville on its various
missions, maintenance and the use of HMC Dockyard facilities.
"From early June to October, Sackville is part of the waterfront
package of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic where she is a
tourist draw," explains Reddy. "About 80 per cent of the ship,
including the bridge, mess deck and engine room, is open to the
public. From late October to early June, we winter in the dockyard."
In
its capacity as a naval memorial, Sackville plays a role during
Battle of the Atlantic Sunday and Remembrance Day ceremonies.
As
part of the Battle of the Atlantic commemorations, Sackville has the
poignant mission of carrying the ashes of former navy members, who
have died during the year, for a service off the entrance to Halifax
harbour.
Sackville is used on other, happier tasks and in this naval
centennial year the ship will be part of the special celebrations.
What
of Sackville’s future? Time is taking its toll and rust is a
problem.
"She’s been sitting in salt water for over 60 years, whereas Haida
is in fresh water in Lake Ontario," says Reddy.
The
decisions on repair and a future "home," which were down the road
are now much nearer. Several possible options are under study and
there is optimism that its days in its unique and meaningful role
will stretch far into the future.
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R.I
challenges Maine for ship
Portland wants the aircraft carrier, but a Rhode Island group is
backed
by Patrick J. Kennedy, a JFK nephew.
By Matt Wickenheiser
Staff Writer, The Portland Press Herald
PORTLAND - A group that wants to bring the decommissioned aircraft
carrier USS John F. Kennedy to Portland Harbor as a museum has
competition from another New England state.
The Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame Inc. announced Monday that it
is seeking to bring the carrier to Newport County as a "family
attraction and recreation facility, education/heritage center, job
training facility and disaster relief asset."
The hall of fame has the support of the state's governor and U.S.
Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, son of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and President
Kennedy's nephew.
JFK for ME's efforts have been bolstered by a letter of support from
the Portland City Council and a resolution from the Legislature. The
group responded to the news from Rhode Island by suggesting that the
carrier would be a major attraction for Maine.
"We believe that the Navy selection committee of the JFK will
realize, just as the former crew of the Kennedy did when, back in
1989, they chose Portland as their elected port of call, that the
return of the JFK to the waters of Portland Harbor will complete the
wishes of the former crew," said Richard Fitzgerald of JFK for ME.
The two groups passed the first round of qualifications to seek the
JFK.
Bill Sheridan, deputy director of the aircraft carrier project in
Rhode Island, suggested that state offers a better home for the JFK,
because "Portland offers less advantages in location, population,
tourism statistics and a number of other issues."
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Nonprofit wants USS JFK for Newport
By Richard Asinof
Providence Business News Contributing Writer
NEWPORT – A nonprofit group has launched a bid to
bring the retired aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy to Rhode
Island and turn it into a family attraction and recreation facility.
In February, the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command qualified the
organization, the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame Inc., to pursue
getting the retired carrier. One other group, from Portland, Me.,
also
qualified.
The Aviation Hall of Fame kicked off a fundraising campaign Monday
with a goal of collecting $8 million to $10 million, said Frank
Lennon, the organization’s president, who is a West Point graduate
and former Green Beret.
Lennon had been president of a similar nonprofit group, the USS
Saratoga Museum Foundation Inc., which tried to bring the USS
Saratoga to the Port of Davisville at Quonset Point. But last fall
the Navy decided not to donate the ship because of its
deterioration, he said.
After the John F. Kennedy became available, Lennon decided to switch
course and marshal his resources to bring the carrier named for the
35th president to Newport. Among Kennedy’s various connections with
Rhode Island, perhaps the best known was his September 1953 wedding,
which
took place at St. Mary’s Church in Newport.
The John F. Kennedy, known affectionately as “Big John,” was the
last conventional aircraft carrier built by the Navy. It was
launched on Sept. 7, 1968, christened by the late president’s
daughter Caroline.
Although the carrier was officially decommissioned on Sept. 1, 2007,
after 18 official deployments in almost four decades of service, it
is still in “mobilization readiness,” Lennon said.
The project has already garnered support from public officials
including Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kenendy,
D-R.I., the late president’s nephew.
“Locating this namesake legacy in Rhode Island would be most
appropriate, given President Kennedy’s close association with the
state, including his wartime training at Melville, his marriage in
Newport, and
the summer White House years at Hammersmith Farm,” Carcieri said.
“I have long been a supporter of bringing a retired aircraft carrier
to Rhode Island for the job creation and tourism opportunities it
presents,” Kennedy said. “The fact that this particular vessel is
named for President Kennedy brings even greater significance to this
project.”
Lennon said the next step in the process will be for his group to
submit financial and environmental plans, including how the ship
would be made available to the public. Those are due in January
2011.
About 80 percent of the work that had been done in preparation for
acquiring the Saratoga can be used for the John F. Kennedy project,
Lennon said. Historic assets from the Saratoga would be displayed
aboard the John F. Kennedy, as well.
“Most of the supporters of the Saratoga effort are behind the JFK
effort,” Lennon said. “They believe in our vision, to create a
family attraction with an aircraft carrier. They are not concerned
with the name on the back of the ship.”
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Patriots Point
looks to expanded parking
By Allyson Bird
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The
Patriots Point Development Authority took the first steps Tuesday
toward turning 14 wooded acres into additional event space and
parking.
The $1.2 million plan would move the entrance to the state-owned
naval and maritime museum past the current gate house and farther
down Patriots Point Road.
Rather than approaching from the side, visitors would pull into the
site looking straight at its biggest draw, the aircraft carrier
Yorktown.
Operations Director Bob Howard said the extra acreage would add 175
to 200 parking spaces in a lot that will absorb rainwater, plus room
for people and groups who want to stage events at Patriots Point. He
said the project should cost about $1.2 million.
Board members gave the go-ahead for the staff to make an application
to the Joint Bond Review Committee, a group of lawmakers that
reviews state financial obligations and recommends projects to the
Budget and Control Board.
The same group gave the go-ahead on a $9.2 million state loan for
emergency repairs to the World War II destroyer Laffey last summer.
Dick Trammell, Patriots Point's executive director, said the agency
"is looking at a number of options" for funding the project.
He said the proposal could become a reality by year's end and serve
as an initial step in the attraction's overhaul under a land master
plan that's in the works.
Trammell also stressed that anything built on the parcel, such as
basic facilities to accommodate camping scouts, would take into
consideration future changes.
"We're not doing anything over here that will make us grieve if we
have to dig it up later," Trammell said.
The board also briefly discussed its ongoing search for a permanent
home for the Laffey. Following its extensive repairs, the warship
sits at a State Ports Authority pier in North Charleston, but it
must be moved by the end of May, before the June 1 start of
hurricane season.
Patriots Point estimated that moving the ship into the former spot
of the Coast Guard cutter Ingham or returning it to its own previous
location would each cost $600,000 or more.
Patriots Point can rent commercial space before bringing the ship
back to Mount Pleasant for an estimated $150,000 per year.
Since the board initially wanted to move the Laffey alongside the
Yorktown, it opted at last month's meeting to consider all choices
before making a decision about the ship's transfer. Trammell said
Tuesday that staff still needed further information on three
potential locations, which he declined to name, before making its
decision.
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Lines are
drawn over plans for Battleship Texas
12:00 AM CDT on Monday, April 19, 2010
By TOM BENNING / The Dallas Morning News
An
enormous dreadnought battleship sits near the spot where some of Sam
Houston's troops camped at San Jacinto Battleground before the
stunning upset that secured Texas' independence 174 years ago.
Disorienting from a purely historical perspective, the famous
Battleship Texas is nonetheless a welcome sight to a broad coalition
of state officials, local leaders and history buffs. In the more
than 60 years since the battleship retired to a slip at San Jacinto
Battleground State Historic Site, the two pieces of Texas lore have
together become an integral part of the local fabric at the park and
along the Houston Ship Channel.
But as the Wednesday anniversary of Houston's triumph approaches, a
group called the Friends of the San Jacinto Battleground says the
dueling symbols of Texas freedom are incongruous and distracting.
And the group's leaders are fighting construction plans – most
notably a project to permanently place the battleship on land – that
they say will only further distort interpretation of the
battlefield.
"There will be huge visual and audio impacts on the battleground,"
said Jeff Dunn, vice president of the Friends group.
"And there already is. This problem has existed since the day the
ship was put there."
The battlefield and the battleship have always been an unusual but
powerful pairing at the state park, which more than 200,000 people
visited last year. And that's not even including the third major
feature of the park: a museum devoted to the battle that sits in the
base of the 570-foot-tall San Jacinto Monument, which was dedicated
in 1939.
"This is a site that is rich in meaning, history and reverence, but
it can also be a complicated place to steward," said Carter Smith,
executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the
agency in charge of the site.
Master plan
For more than two decades, park stakeholders have weighed how to
best shepherd the site, which is surrounded by petrochemical
complexes and the hustle and bustle of the Houston Ship Channel. In
1998, they drafted a master plan that focused on returning the site
to its 1836 condition and making the battleground the centerpiece
attraction, although the ship would still have been on site.
"This vision is based on a simple yet powerful concept: the Park
would not exist if the 1836 Battle had not taken place there," the
master plan says.
But in recent years, the park's focus has shifted – partially out of
necessity. The Battleship Texas, commissioned in 1914 and used in
both world wars, is now the last ship of its kind, and it has slowly
deteriorated in the brackish waters of the Houston Ship Channel. It
was last patched up in the late 1980s at a cost of more than $15
million. By the mid-2000s, the hull was paper thin.
"Our worst nightmare could come true if we wait any longer," said
Steven Howell, president of the Battleship Texas Foundation. "If she
fills up with water, there's not a lot we can do."
Bond package
Temporary repairs similar to those received in the 1980s were out of
the question. They would have required a tow into the Gulf of
Mexico, and an independent engineering study said that was too
risky. So state officials and park stakeholders determined the best
long-term solution was dry-berthing the ship, which involves moving
the ship permanently onto land.
In 2007, Texas voters approved a bond package that included $25
million for the Battleship Texas' dry-berthing; the Battleship Texas
Foundation is providing another $4 million. Last March, the state
Legislative Budget Board, a group of 10 officials, approved selling
those bonds "contingent on the ship being dry berthed in its current
location."
The plans also have the overwhelming support of park and community
leaders – including U.S. congressmen, state representatives and
local politicians.
"The battleship, the battleground and the monument all go together,"
said state Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston. "To take one away, you
might as well take an arm away from the area."
Dueling revitalizations
But leaders of the Friends of the San Jacinto Battleground argue
that the expanded battleship attraction will further hinder efforts
to revitalize the battlefield. They also note that the engineering
study predicts the ship could survive a short tow, so they want the
state to look for nearby sites that would be less intrusive to the
battlefield.
"The ship is a national treasure, and we want the best for it," said
the group's president, Jan DeVault. "But let's weigh the other
possibilities."
Parks and Wildlife Department officials said they had already looked
into alternative sites and found no options that were suitable or
available.
The battleground group also opposes plans for a new visitors center,
along with an idea by the Battleship Texas Foundation to create a
1940s-era wharf around the ship. Members say both projects will
disturb historically significant parts of the battleground.
In February, a historic-preservation group named the battleground
one of Texas' most endangered historic places, in part because "new
construction projects threaten to compromise the site and lead to
further loss of the historic landscape."
Nonetheless, officials hope the dry-berthing and the new visitors
center will be completed by no later than 2014, although some
obstacles remain. Both require rigorous environmental reviews, and
the parks and wildlife department estimates that an additional $27
million may be needed to fix the battleship after it is moved onto
land.
Many of those invested in the future of the park remain steadfast
that all the ongoing projects at the site will benefit visitors who
come to San Jacinto seeking an immersion in the lessons of Texas
freedom. And despite some of the recent controversy, they said the
current plans will enhance all of the historical gems located at the
famous battleground.
"The objections to these projects have been created on the premise
that every single spot of land that is now part of the San Jacinto
Battleground is sacred," said Howell, the Battleship Texas
Foundation's executive director. "But I can't think of a better
place to put the ship. You get two history lessons in one place."
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Tico supporters take cues from military museum at Camp Shelby
By Kaija Wilkinson, Mississippi Press
April 15, 2010, 6:00AM
PASCAGOULA -- Supporters of a maritime museum that could eventually
include the Ingalls-built USS Ticonderoga visited the Armed Forces
Museum at Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg on Tuesday to learn how that
museum was planned and funded.
About 30 people including elected officials, citizens and members of
the Mississippi Ticonderoga Project Executive Committee rode a bus
donated by Dr. James Sutton. They returned to Pascagoula impressed,
and hopeful that the city can make its own museum a reality.
"It's a very doable project -- it just takes time, effort and
patience more than anything else," said Dr. Jack Hoover, president
of the committee.
The Pascagoula museum, which would showcase the city's shipbuilding
heritage, could cost as much as $12 million not counting the ship,
according to preliminary figures. The military museum, meanwhile, is
smaller, about $4.1 million.
Planners said they have benefited from learning about other museums'
planning strategies. Besides the Armed Forces Museum, they visited
the retired destroyer Kidd in Baton Rouge, La., in late 2008.
This week, "the main thing we came away with is to know what you're
going to have before you go out and ask for money," Keene said.
He said the 11-year-old military museum underestimated its annual
visitor count by more than half, ending up with about 40,000 people
per year.
Including donated items such as authentic uniforms and even a
welding trophy won by Ingalls' own "Rosie the Riveter," Vera
Anderson, in the early 1940s, the museum was described by several
visitors as "state of the art."
Visitors learned that the museum is about 80 percent funded by the
state of Mississippi, with about one-fifth of the funding coming
from private donations, Keene said.
Hoover said he hopes the local museum can secure federal and state
funds as well as in-kind services. He, along with Keene, a retired
Ingalls employee, and Robert Hardy, a retired Navy commander, plan a
trip to Washington, D.C., in mid-May to sit down and talk to state
legislators about their plans.
An engineering feasibility study is about 90 percent complete and an
economic feasibility marketing study is due in several weeks, Hoover
said. They plan to go to Washington armed with that information.
Preliminary results of the engineering study showed it will cost as
much as $17 million to bring the Ticonderoga home from Philadelphia,
where it is docked at a facility for inactive ships.
That's a higher than expected price tag thanks to new Navy docking
requirements that require a facility to be built to withstand a
Category 5 hurricane. Hoover said he hopes the $12 million price tag
for the museum can be trimmed down.
Earlier this year, the committee decided to focus on building the
museum first, then placing the ship.
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A different mission for 'Mo'
Museum ship plays part of foreign vessel for Navy teams' boarding
exercise
By William Cole
Honolulu Advertiser Military Writer
April 15, 2010
PEARL HARBOR — Most people who visit the battleship Missouri museum
and memorial go aboard from the pierside stairs.
Sailors from two Navy destroyers and a frigate yesterday came from
the sea, taking turns arriving in an inflatable boat and climbing
the side of the battleship via a skinny cable ladder in body armor
and helmets and with fake training guns drawn.
For part of the morning, a portion of the 887-foot "Mighty Mo"
became a "noncompliant" foreign merchant vessel that the Navy
searched for illegal activity.
It's part of a Navy mission that takes place every day in locations
such as the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden, where piracy costs
international shipping more than $100 million a year. Some ships are
searched for contraband including drugs and weapons.
Ensign Ray Miller IV, who's on the Pearl Harbor frigate Crommelin,
said yesterday's training brought together search and seizure teams
from three ships, which is rare, and provided the opportunity to
search an unfamiliar ship.
The Battleship Missouri Memorial volunteered the space.
"The great thing about being able to use the Missouri is we usually
train on our own ship ... and all the teams coming on board today
have never been on the Missouri in the spaces that they had to see
today," Miller said.
Almost every surface ship has a "visit, board, search and seizure"
team, Miller said.
Formal Navy search and seizure training was created following the
Gulf
War in 1990 to standardize ship interceptions that began as a result
of
United Nations resolutions.
About 10 a.m. yesterday, an inflatable boat pulled up to the
starboard side of the Missouri with a search team of about eight
from the USS O'Kane aboard.
All had blue or red simulated rifles or pistols drawn and pointed
out from hunkered-down positions on the inflatable boat. The first
sailor over the top arrived handgun-first.
Gunner's Mate 1st Class Javier Villarreal, 30, who serves on the
O'Kane, said he's been on more than 140 real-world boardings since
1997. None involved gunfire, but all involve uncertainty.
"It's scary. I'm not going to lie," the Texas man said. "I get
afraid sometimes but I know with my team and the training with each
other, I know that we together can overcome any obstacles in our
way."
On one occasion in the Persian Gulf, he and other team members had
to search a container ship with more than 200 of the boxy
containers. The sailors had to rappel down to each container using
ropes.
"Makes for a pretty long day and a pretty interesting experience,
sitting on top of a container ship looking down about 100 feet to
the water," Villarreal said.
Half the O'Kane team went up two stairwells on the Missouri to an
area designated as the bridge of the Missouri in its role as a
foreign merchant vessel, and half went below to what was intended to
represent an engineering area.
Ensign John Gaster, who was the "master" of the foreign ship,
shouted to Villarreal's team, "Who are you? Get off my ship!" as the
sailors swung their training weapons around looking for a threat.
In addition to the O'Kane and Crommelin, the destroyer Paul Hamilton
also participated in the training.
Mike Pagano, the military liaison for the Missouri, said the
battleship hosts a lot of re-enlistments and retirements, and
providing the training venue yesterday is one way it supports the
military.
The training on the small cordoned area of the ship also became a
bit of a tourist attraction.
Richard Smith was visiting from New Jersey with his wife, Chell, son
Joshua, 8, and daughter Sofia, 5. Joshua Smith got to meet some of
the sailors taking part in the training and try on a Kevlar helmet.
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By
Cindy Clayton
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 15, 2010
NORFOLK
The
city will celebrate taking ownership of the battleship Wisconsin at
a ceremony Friday.
The event is planned for
10 a.m. on the bow of the ship, according to a news release. The
Navy granted ownership to the city late last year.
Tours of the ship's interior, including the ward room, captain's
cabin, combat center, flag bridge and navigation bridge, are
scheduled to begin this summer, according to the city.
The ship was commissioned in 1944 and participated in World War II,
the Korean War and the Persian Gulf War. It was decommissioned and
recommissioned several times before being taken out of active
service in 1991. The ship has been next to Nauticus since 2000.
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World War II boat will dock Friday evening in Mt. Vernon, Ind.
The Carmi Times
Wed Apr 14, 2010, 01:21 PM CDT
Mt. Vernon, Ind. -The Evansville, Ind.-based LST 325 Ship is
coming to Mt. Vernon, Ind. for a four-day stop April 16-20, the Mt.
Vernon Democrat reported.
Every year the LST has annual maintenance on their ship and then
travels to another community for a three- or four-day stop. This
year Mt. Vernon was selected for that stop at the riverfront.
The LST (Landing Ship Tank) is an amphibious vessel designed to land
battle-ready tanks, troops and supplies directly onto enemy shores.
The ships were enormously useful during World War II, Korea and the
Vietnam War and belonged to all services including Army, Navy,
Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Merchant Marine. There were
1,051 of those ships built for WWII, and 70 percent were built on
the Ohio and Illinois rivers. The LST was considered "The Ship That
Won The War."
The LST 325 is the last one of her class that can still sail under
her own power. This ship participated in the decisive victory at
Normandy during Operation Overlord.
The LST will be arriving in Mt. Vernon on Friday afternoon, April 16
and be docked there through the weekend. It will leave the Mt.
Vernon dock on Tuesday morning, April 20 to return back to the home
dock in Evansville later that day.
A welcome ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 17. Tours
will be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Last tour ticket will be
sold at 4 p.m. The length of tours will be between 30 to 45 minutes.
Tours are $10 for adults and $5 for those under 18. Children younger
than age 6 get on board free. Family tours are $20, and school
groups are $3 per person, with one chaperon admitted free for every
10 students.
Special events can be scheduled on the main deck and tank deck such
as dinners, weddings and receptions after visitation is over.
Contact the LST 325 Office for details or scheduling at 812-435-8678
or 325office@lstmemorial.org. The captain is also available for
special memorial services.
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Some Pascagoula residents go on a fact finding mission to Camp
Shelby.
Posted: Apr 12, 2010 5:42 PM EDT Updated: Apr 13, 2010 6:34 AM EDT
HATTIESBURG, MS (WLOX) - Efforts to bring the USS Ticonderoga to
South Mississippi and turn it into the state's first maritime
warship museum are moving a step forward today.
The group of Pascagoula residents working to move the decommissioned
vessel from Pennsylvania to Pascagoula is heading to Camp Shelby
Tuesday to find out how funds were raised for the Mississippi Armed
Forces Museum that was built at that base.
It is projected that it will cost more than $10 million to move the
ship from the Navy yard in Pennsylvania to Pascagoula.
The USS Ticonderoga was built at Ingalls Shipyard and it helped
defend our country for years.
Later today on wlox.com and WLOX News see what the Pascagoula group
learned about how to raise the funds it needs to move the
Ticonderoga and open a museum.
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Commission
will raise money to restore USS Iowa
By JENNIFER JACOBS • jejacobs@dmreg.com • April 13, 2010
Des Moines Register
Now
that the state officially backs turning the USS Iowa battleship into
a permanent naval museum and tourist attraction, supporters hope
fundraising will kick into high gear.
Gov. Chet Culver signed a resolution Monday that creates a 10-member
state commission to raise private money to refit the battleship into
a tourist attraction.
The government spent $120 million to commission the ship in 1943.
Forty-seven sailors died on the ship after an explosion in 1989. The
ship was decommissioned in 1990.
It's the only battleship with a bathtub, which was built for
President Franklin Roosevelt, state officials said.
Today, the ship is somewhat of a bathtub itself. It draws in copious
amounts of ocean water, said Merilyn Wong of the nonprofit
California-based group Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square,
which has led fundraising for the USS Iowa.
The boat is one of an armada of decaying ships in a bay near San
Francisco that have polluted the water with toxic substances for
decades. The federal government has agreed to relocate the ship to
the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, Calif.
Already, $4 million has been raised and spent, and another $18
million to $20 million is needed to prepare the USS Iowa for public
visitation, Wong said.
The 10-member state committee will serve without compensation or
reimbursement, Senate Joint Resolution 2007 says. The resolution
also creates a fund in the state treasury to accept gifts, grants,
bequests, state or federal grants or other money.
Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, said he hopes Iowans
will go to California to help restore the ship or tour it in the
future.
Kibbie said that while fighting in the Korean War, he knew the
battleship Iowa "was out there" on the ocean, involved in raids on
the North Korean coast.
A replica of the USS Iowa sits in a glass case in the Iowa Capitol.
Three previous USS Iowa warships were
scrapped or sunk.
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Subchaser restoration
slow going
The Sarnia Oberserver, April 6, 2010
The plan to restore a Second World War subchaser has sprung a few
leaks but is far from sunk, says Paul Woolley of the Friends of
Q105.
Woolley and a large number of volunteers had hoped to have the
historic ship from Sarnia rebuilt this year, in time to join
celebrations for the Canadian Naval Centennial in Halifax.
But the financial challenge is proving larger than expected and the
cold weather has slowed progress.
The old warship, once operated as the Duc d'Orleans cruise boat, has
been stripped down and covered in tarps since she was raised from
the water in 2007.
About $12,000 has been donated towards its restoration and Woolley
estimates another $100,000 has been given in kind. But it could take
as much as $1.2 million to get her shipshape.
"To fulfill everything on our wish list and turn it into one of the
most amazing vessels on the Great Lakes, especially for training, it
could cost that much," he said.
"We can do it for less if we do a minimum of repairs to get it back
into the water."
The engine, for instance, is still in good working order but Friends
of Q105 want to replace it with a much more fuel efficient and
eco-friendly engine.
Government grants for such projects dried up shortly after the ship
was lifted and fundraising stalled with the recession, said Woolley.
"The times have held us back but I figure the economy has turned
around a bit and we're ready to launch our corporate fundraising
campaign this month," he said.
By mid-April, volunteers will be back at the site, lifting tarps and
preparing to remove the 500- gallon fuel tanks with a crane.
Woolley expects the oak frame will be repaired over the summer, a
job he described as long, tough and finicky. He also wants to have
the transom at the stern of the hull entirely rebuilt by August.
Work by the north slip on Exmouth Street may have slowed over the
winter but the organizational effort never stopped, Woolley said.
For instance, his team managed to obtain original drawings for this
line of subchasers from the Australian navy.
"It's already taken thousands of volunteer hours to get to this
point," he said. "Right now we could use fund-raisers and people
with some level of carpentry skills." Anyone interested in helping
should call 519-344-7660.
"I think the community will celebrate it once it's in the water, but
we need financial help now," said Woolley.
Once restoration is complete, Q105, built at Mac Craft in Sarnia in
1942, will be the only remaining Second World War Canadian naval
vessel still under power.
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Pearl Harbor
Visitors Leave Disappointed
Reported by: Ron Mizutanim, KHON Channel 2
Sometimes the best laid plans don't always develop.
That was the story for many visitors who made the trip to pearl
harbor Monday. Hundreds had hopes of visiting the USS Arizona
Memorial only to learn the monument is closed for the next 10 days.
Word often travels quickly in Hawaii but apparently not quick
enough.
"You don't know until you wait at the ticket and information line
and once you get to the desk he's like oh no we're not doing the
Arizona Memorial they're closed until the 15th," said Ashley Wood of
North Carolina.
An estimated 4,000 people visit the USS Arizona Memorial each day
many from out of country.
"We're from Belgium. So yesterday we had a flight of 22 hours 8
hours Belgium New york, New York 10 hours to here and now you tell
me we can't see the USS Arizona," said Christian Bral of Belgium.
Most didn't know boat tours are suspended due to construction.
"That's the problem, due to the fact that we come from Belgium, we
didn't see on the internet that it is closed so otherwise perhaps we
will see other things," added Fele Embo. "Disappointed? Yeah, Yeah
absolutely."
They weren't alone.
"You try to plan something that you want to do everyday and this was
the day that we wanted to come here so we'll have to get in it
another time," said Pamela Tilofaga of North Carolina.
"They need to put up signs or something so they know before they
park because it was hard for us to park too before we even got up
here," said Wood.
But some were notified.
"We're staying at the Embassy Suites in Waikiki and they told us
that it was closed for the next 10 days," said John Trinchere of
Virginia.
"Yeah, they told us about the Arizona being closed and that we could
go on the Missouri so yeah we got the word in advance which was
good," said Col. Gary Hisle of Arizona.
Park officials remind visitors the USS Bowfin, the Mighty Mo and the
Air Museum remain open, more than enough reason for most.
"I'm in the military so you know a lot of sailors and army also died
here during WWII so very interested. Want to teach it to my son here
so he learns a little bit of history," said Col. Hisle. "And
actually I've got soldiers on a ship right now that are fighting for
Iraq and Afghanistan. So yeah, it is pretty emotional."
Boat tours will resume April 15.
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Suisun
Bay's ghost fleet may finally R.I.P.
Carl Nolte, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The
federal government and environmental groups reached an agreement
Wednesday that will mean the end of the ghost fleet of retired ships
in Suisun Bay.
The vessels were once part of a mighty reserve fleet of warships and
freighters, but time and neglect has turned them into what one
environmental advocate called "a floating toxic waste dump."
Only 52 ships remain of a fleet that once was as big as a good-size
Navy, and these rusting old vessels will be removed and cleaned up
for an ocean voyage to Texas, where they will be scrapped. The fleet
will be reduced gradually, with 25 ships in the worst condition
taken out within two years and the remainder by fall 2017. The
settlement, which must be approved by a federal court in Sacramento,
ends a long dispute over the ships, which have been a fixture in the
bay just east of Benicia for generations.
After World War II, there were thousands of surplus ships, and, in
1946, the Maritime Administration began keeping the best of them in
reserve. At one time, more than 350 ships were in the fleet,
including cruisers, destroyers, supply ships, transports and
tankers. Many of them were broken out for service in the Korean and
Vietnam wars, but the rest stayed in Suisun Bay and gradually became
neglected and obsolete - a fleet of ghosts tied up in rows, waiting
for a call to duty that never came.Rust and paint
They sat waiting in some cases for more than 30 years; the decks
rusted and the ships' coats of lead-based paint peeled and fell into
the bay. Environmental groups and the state Regional Water Quality
Control Board pressured the Maritime Administration to do something,
to no avail.
The Maritime Administration relented and last year conducted a
survey, which found that more than 20 tons of toxic material from
the ships had gotten into Suisun Bay, which is a critical
environmental area for fish and wildlife, including the endangered
chinook salmon. There are no current plans to clean up the material.
"They were a festering sore in San Francisco Bay," said Rep. George
Miller, D-Martinez, who tried to get the pollution stopped for
years. "We had people (in the Bush administration) who said nothing
could be done."
In January, a federal judge in Sacramento ruled in a lawsuit filed
by environmental groups that the ships were illegally polluting
Suisun Bay.
"They were a floating toxic waste dump," said Deb Self, executive
director for the San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental group.To
the scrap yard
Under the settlement announced Wednesday, the Maritime
Administration will not only get rid of the 52 old ships over time,
but will clean the surfaces of the remaining ships every 90 days
until they're removed to keep paint from dropping in the water,
inspect the ships monthly and collect runoff samples for testing.
Once ships are removed from the fleet, they will be towed to the BAE
Systems San Francisco shipyard at the foot of Potrero Hill to be
cleaned of toxic paint and marine growth. They then will be towed to
a facility in Brownsville, Texas, via the Panama Canal, to be
scrapped. David Matsuda, the head of the U.S. Maritime
Administration, said he did not know how much the program would
cost.
"It depends," he said, "on the scrap metal market."Previous
withdrawals
Obsolete ships have been sent to the scrap yard over the years. Four
old ships, including two World War II vintage Victory ships, have
been taken out of the reserve fleet since last fall. The most recent
one was the 66-year-old tanker Mission Santa Ynez, towed out
Wednesday and taken to the San Francisco yard.
The Mission Santa Ynez, launched at the Marinship yard in Sausalito
in 1943, has been in the reserve fleet for 35 years.
At present, the San Francisco facility is the only shipyard in the
Bay Area capable of cleaning the ships.
Fifteen ships, some of them owned by the U.S. Navy and not part of
the ghost fleet, will be retained in the Suisun Bay anchorage.
One of them is the battleship Iowa, a veteran of World War II. There
have been proposals to dock the ship as a museum in San Francisco,
but the idea was turned down by the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors. Other plans to dock the ship in Stockton or Vallejo
have come to nothing.Historic ships of the ghost fleet
Several historic vessels are among the ships anchored now or in the
past at Suisun Bay.
The battleship Iowa: The biggest and most famous ship of the fleet
served in World War II and the Korean War. The Iowa carried
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Cairo and Tehran conferences
in 1943. The ship was recommissioned in 1984 but was laid up again
in 1990 after an explosion in a turret that killed 47 sailors. The
Iowa will be retained at Suisun Bay pending disposition as a museum
ship.
The General Pope and the General Patrick: These two World War II
transports will be scrapped. Both carried troops in World War II and
the Korean War.
The Victory ships: They were the backbone of the reserve fleet. They
were cargo ships that were invaluable in World War II and the Korean
and Vietnam wars. The Winthrop Victory was towed to sea earlier this
year and is on its way to the scrap yard.
Museum ships: Three reserve fleet ships have been given a new life
as museum ships. The oldest is the 1943 vintage Jeremiah O'Brien,
one of two remaining World War II Liberty Ships. The O'Brien is in
operating condition and is berthed at Fisherman's Wharf. The World
War II-era Lane
Victory operates out of Los Angeles, and the Red Oak Victory is
undergoing restoration in Richmond.
The Mission Santa Ynez: This tanker left the reserve fleet Wednesday
to be scrapped. It was the last surviving vessel built at the
Marinship yard in Sausalito. It was launched in December 1943, and
the ship's sponsor was Mrs. Ralph Davies, for whom the Davies
Symphony Hall in San Francisco was named.
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Overfalls slip bid goes to Kuhn Construction. Project set to start
in March
By Rob Kunzig, Cape Gazette
3/3/10
The bid to construct a permanent berth for Lewes’ historic Lightship
Overfalls will be awarded to Kuhn Construction, a firm based in
Hockessin.
Lewes city council voted Thursday, Feb. 18, to award the project to
Kuhn, the low bidder recommended by the Delaware Department of
Transportation (DelDOT). Kuhn has handled a number of projects in
Sussex County, including approaches to the Indian River Inlet
bridge, renovations at the Indian River Inlet marina and an
expansion of the Georgetown wastewater treatment plant.
Because the project is largely funded by the American Recovery &
Reinvestment Act, DelDOT handled bidding and contract writing. The
contract sets forth a 90-day construction period, but Councilman Ted
Becker said he was concerned it did not include a penalty for not
missing the three-month deadline. Pres Lee, project manager, said he
shared the councilman’s concerns.
“Several things about this contract are unusual,” he said. “But it’s
DelDOT’s lead.”
After council’s unanimous vote, Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation
(OMMF) President Dave Bernheisel thanked council and said he looks
forward to working with Canalfront Park to complete the project.
“This is a happy day for the Overfalls,” he said. Bernheisel’s wife,
Mary, said the foundation hopes Kuhn will begin construction in
early March. The sooner the project starts, she said, the sooner the
lightship
can open for summer visitors.
“They’re anxious to start,” she said. “And we’re more than anxious
to see them start.”
George Elliott, recently retired from the OMMF board of directors,
said Kuhn will drive sheet metal into the mud where the Overfalls
now rests on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal, creating a u-shaped slip. A
solid berth
will help visitors move on and off the ship, he said, as well as
improve the site aesthetically.
Before the Overfalls was towed to Norfolk in 2008, Elliott said, the
ship’s hull had sunk 7 feet deep in mud. When it returned to Lewes,
the banks quickly collapsed around the Overfalls once more. A sturdy
berth will carve out a place for the ship to float, Elliot said.
“The banks will be stabilized,” he said. “There will be no more
erosion around the slip.”
The $400,000 contributed by the federal government will foot most of
the bill, but Elliott said the foundation raised $150,000 to cover
additional costs. He said the foundation will work closely with
Canalfront Park and the Lewes Historical Society to ensure the slip
blends harmoniously with its surroundings.
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Pas Council approves maritime museum study, welcomes additional
funds to restore historic house
By Kaija Wilkinson, Mississippi Press
March 03, 2010, 8:09AM
PASCAGOULA -- A new maritime museum moved closer to reality and the
city formally accepted additional federal funding to restore one of
the oldest structures on the Gulf Coast during Tuesday night's City
Council meeting.The City Council agreed to pay Jackson-based
Resource Development LLC $5,000 to perform a study on the
feasibility of building a maritime museum that would include
bringing the Ingalls-built USS Ticonderoga back to the city.
The project was first proposed to the Council in September 2007. The
study will be funded by a Mississippi Development Authority grant,
and will help the city determine the market for what's been
described as a potential major tourism attraction. It is expected to
be complete in three weeks, City Manager Kay Kell said.
Dr. Jack Hoover, president of the nonprofit Mississippi Maritime and
Warship Museum, has said that the 30,000-square-foot, three-story
museum would cost about $12 million.
The USS Ticonderoga, built at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's
Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula and commissioned in 1983, would be
placed near the museum. Lowery Island, state owned property north of
the U.S. 90 high-rise bridge, was chosen last year as the site.
Decommissioned in 2003, the warship is docked at an inactive ships
facility in Philadelphia. The cost to place it in Pascagoula is
expected to be about $17 million, a price tag that rose from an
estimated $9 million due to newer, stricter docking requirements
from the Navy including a facility's ability to withstand a Category
5 hurricane.
The project lost out on part of $34 million state bond issue that
the legislature approved last month, but Hoover said the project
will be in the next such bill. State lawmakers, he said, have been
enthusiastic, especially about the museum.
Kell said most community members believe that the museum is the
perfect way to showcase the area's shipbuilding tradition. The
museum, she said, "would be a way to generate interest that might be
able to raise money to later bring in the ship."
Also during the meeting, the council approved a contract between the
city and the Mississippi Department of Archives and Hsitory
increasing a by $150,000 to $400,000 a federal grant to restore the
circa 1721 LaPointe-Krebs House, heavily damaged in Hurricane
Katrina.
The city has hired a consultant to guide the project, which is
expected to take about two years, according to Jaci Turner, city
program manager.
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Boosters of a Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum in Bangor Township
have acquired a flagpole associated with World War II and are
holding a fundraiser to buy flags for it.
The 70-foot flagpole comes from the old General Motors Saginaw
Malleable Iron Plant, which made gun parts and tank tracks in the
1940s for the war effort, museum committee members say. The pole
went to the Saginaw Wastewater Treatment Plant after the Malleable
plant closed.
The wastewater plant has agreed to donate the old pole to the museum
committee, which is raising money to bring
the retired USS Edson destroyer
to town as a floating museum, to be docked near the Independence
Bridge.
The pole is to be installed at the dock site next month. The museum
committee is holding a fundraiser on March 4 and 5, from 11 a.m. to
3 p.m. at the GM Powertrain's Saginaw Metal Casting Operations in
Saginaw.
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Varna Makes Urgent Appeal to Save Bulgarian Naval Legend
Culture | February 4, 2010, Thursday
Sofia News Agency
"Drazki", the legedary torpedo-boat that saw service in the Balkan
Wars, and one of the most valuable exhibits in the Naval Museum in
Varna, could collapse at any moment, the museum director, Dr Mariana
Kristeva has announced.
"The pedestals on which the ship is supported are crumbling, both
from the burden of time and because she is subject to the weather in
all seasons of the year," said Dr. Krasteva on Thursday.
"I dare not think about what would happen if the foundations give in
because of her weight. This would mean losing an extremely valuable
exhibit associated with the glorious history of our navy," she
stated.
Kristeva said that she had held talks with a team of specialists who
have expressed their opinion that the repair can be performed
without requiring the ship to be moved.
The emergency operation would aim to reinforce the ship's supports
using a specific technology.
The urgently needed repairs to the "Drazki" (Intrepid) would require
at least BGN 50 000. Given the already squeezed budget of the
Defense Ministry, which funds the Varna Museum, state financing of
the project is unlikely, she ventured.
The museum’s expert team, led by Mariana Kristeva, are now
considering the idea of making a direct appeal to the citizens of
Varna, in order to secure the necessary cash.
"My hope is that, despite the financial crisis and the policy of
making economies, which is reasonable, the Municipality of Varna
will come to our aid, whether completely or at least in part," the
director said.
"Businesses can also participate by making donations, and patriotic
citizens have already expressed their willingness to give their
mite. The funds will be raised in a bank account as a donation
target," said
Krasteva.
"The museum and this exhibit are the emblem of Varna," she
emphasized.
The "Drazki" was one of six torpedo boats ordered by Bulgaria. They
were built in France, and transported overland in sections to
Bulgaria, where the final assembly took place.
"Drazki" was launched in the autumn of 1907, and commissioned in
early 1908.
During the Balkan Wars, "Drazki" entered the history of the native
fleet after successfully, at almost point-blank range, torpedoing
the Turkish cruiser Hamidie, and crippling her.
"Drazki" is now the only preserved example of this class of ship,
USS Laffey proves mettle, lasts through hull repairsPosted: Feb 08,
2010 6:57 PM EST Updated: Feb 08, 2010 8:15 PM EST
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USS
Laffey proves mettle, lasts through hull repairs
Posted: Feb 08, 2010 6:57 PM EST
Updated: Feb 08, 2010 8:15 PM EST
CHARLESTON HARBOR, SC (WCSC) - The USS Laffey survived kamikaze
attacks and Japanese bombs in WWII, but she is losing the battle
with time. Over the decades since the end of the second great war,
her hull has rotted away.
However, the soldiers that once stood on her deck fighting for
survival are once again doing everything they can to save the ship.
In 1944, Lee Hunt was a Seaman first class on the destroyer. "I grew
up on this ship. I came on this ship when I was 17," said Hunt.
Now the ship on which he grew up is falling apart.
"The bottom was falling out. You could see the mud right under the
ship. If you stood, you'd go right through the bottom into the mud,"
said Hunt.
So Patriots Point, the park where the Laffey is permanently
stationed, hired Joe Lombardi to save her.
"This is the only time it's been done to an historic ship to the
scale we did. The scope of work was all-encompassing," said
Lombardi.
For five months, Lombardi's crew has worked around the clock to make
repairs. "The space itself would have been rusted, scaled, [full of]
standing water -- that sort of thing. Now it's all painted --
beautiful," he said.
Quarterman 2nd Class Ari Phoutrides hasn't been on the ship in
years, only recently coming back after hearing about the efforts
being made to save the Laffey.
"It was our home. You like to preserve your home and when something
is done to it, you appreciate it," said Phoutrides.
The two crewmen now look forward to the day when the ship is
repaired and docked at Patriots Point. "It should be a reminder to
the younger generation of what they have. And they didn't have to
fight for it," said Hunt.
The Laffey will remain at the SPA Veteran's terminal until the
museum displays are constructed and the exterior is painted.
Organizers hope to move her to Patriot's Point early next year.
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Port of LA pressured on
USS Iowa
By Donna Littlejohn Staff Writer, Daily Breeze
Posted: 02/02/2010 07:29:08 PM PST
Hoping to have the ship open for visitors by the Fourth of July
celebration in 2011, organizers are stepping up pressure on the Port
of Los Angeles to bring the historic USS Iowa battleship to San
Pedro.
"I think the people of San Pedro, if they want this ship, need to
convey that to the port commissioners," said Robert Kent, president
of the Pacific Battleship Center.
While the presentation and proposal is not slated to go on a formal
agenda until later this month, the group is urging supporters to
attend upcoming commission meetings to informally show their
support.
Kent said the group faces a March 31 deadline to submit an
application to the Navy to acquire the USS Iowa as a donation.
"That allows for a six-month review (by the Navy) and we are hoping
to be awarded the ship sometime before Nov. 15 so we could tow her
down before the rough weather hits," Kent said.
Port spokesman Phillip Sanfield said port officials continue to
research the proposal and should have a response soon.
"Basically, from our perspective, the port is working on the request
from the Pacific Battleship Center," he said. "We're studying it and
doing the due diligence. We hope to have a response for the group
within the next 30 days."
Another nonprofit group to the north, in Vallejo, has been working
to bring the World War II ship to Mare Island for several years.
That group continues its fundraising and still holds exclusive
negotiating status with the Navy.
But Kent, who won't provide specifics, says he's received assurances
from the Navy that bids could reopen.
A Navy spokeswoman reiterated last week that the Mare Island
application was still the only one formally in play for the ship
donation.
Since the San Pedro effort became public just before Christmas, it
has received strong support from the Harbor Area as well as veterans
from across the nation.
"Everybody in San Pedro wants the thing," said Bryan Moss, who
served aboard the ship in 1952-53 during the Korean War.
"It was my home for a year and a half," he said, adding that he
stepped on board the USS Iowa for the first time as an 18-year-old
sailor in Long Beach. "What happens to it affects a lot of guys."
In a letter sent out Monday to San Pedro business owners and
residents, H. Delano Roosevelt - the grandson of President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt - urged members of the community to support the
campaign.
"It is important the Iowa gets a berth site location soon so we can
submit out application to the Navy by March 31st," the letter
states. "If we get our award by August 31st, we can tow the ship
here by November 15th. The ship will then be prepared to receive
visitors by July 4th, 2011.
The Pacific Battleship Center has hired two professional fundraisers
and is within weeks of launching a Web site.
Port officials mainly have been studying possible locations as well
as how the massive, 887-foot-long ship would fit into its future
waterfront plans, Sanfield said.
"We just got (the proposal) late last year so we're doing our best
to turn this around for them," he said.
An initial site suggested by supporters - near the Maritime Museum
on a section of waterfront closest to the downtown shopping district
- appears to have been pushed aside for an alternative spot in San
Pedro's Outer Harbor.
Berths 49-50 in the East Channel originally served as the U.S. Navy
base from 1919 until just after World War II.
The location, however, could prove unpopular with community critics
who already have raised concerns about the future cruise terminal in
the Outer Harbor.
According to supporters, the alternative location is appealing for
several reasons, although other sites continue to be explored as
well.
"The site not only has high visibility, but it has a new roadway
designed to handle traffic for the (future) cruise ship terminal,"
the revised proposal states. "The site also is in close proximity to
electrical, water and sanitary utilities and has enough space for a
parking lot and the land-based battleship museum. The land museum
would be a world class museum which not only would highlight all of
the U.S. battleships, but major battleships of the world."
Water depth there also is adequate for the ship, the proposal notes,
with no dredging required.
Roosevelt's letter urges supporters to sign up to speak in open
public comment segments at the commission meeting at 8:30 a.m.
Thursday and at a special port meeting to discuss the waterfront
redevelopment from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 11.
Built in 1943, the USS Iowa served for five decades and was
decommissioned for the last time in 1990.
It was used to shuttle President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the
Atlantic Ocean during World War II and features several doorway and
room modifications that were made to accommodate Roosevelt's
wheelchair.
The ship was the namesake of the Iowa class battleships and is the
last remaining in her class. The others - the USS Missouri, USS New
Jersey and the USS Wisconsin - are all permanent floating museums,
drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
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Maine
Group In Running To Land Aircraft Carrier
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) ― A nonprofit group in Maine says it's still in
the
running to bring the decommissioned USS John F. Kennedy to Portland
Harbor as a floating museum.
The USS John F. Kennedy Museum said Wednesday that the Navy has
invited
it to enter into the next phase to land the 1,052-foot aircraft
carrier.
According to the group, the Navy said only two organizations made it
to
the next stage, but didn't reveal the other group.
The Kennedy was removed from service in 2007. The Navy is making it
available for use as a museum or memorial.
The Maine group says the ship would be a tourist draw and preserve a
piece of history. Critics say Portland is ill-equipped to take on
such a
massive project.
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Battleship Missouri back
home
The "Mighty Mo" returns to Ford Island after 12 weeks of repairs
costing
$18 million
By Gary T. Kubota, Honolulu Star Bulletin
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 08, 2010
The
"Mighty Mo," the platform for the Japanese surrender in World War
II, has returned to its berth in Pearl Harbor to continue serving as
a floating national museum. Completing 12 weeks of repair costing
about $18 million, the battleship Missouri is expected to have a
formal grand reopening on Jan. 30.
But it is to be temporarily moved tomorrow to be a part of a major
motion picture called "Battleship."
The ship went through a daylong process of being refloated in dry
dock yesterday and a slow 2-mile journey to its dock at Ford Island.
Retired Vice Adm. Robert Kihune, chairman of the USS Missouri
Memorial Association, said he thought the ship was in better
condition than it was when he was aboard it in 1986. "I could feel a
new vibrancy aboard the ship," Kihune said.
The "Mighty Mo" began major repairs in dry dock on Oct. 14,
including replacement of hull plates and repainting. The work also
included the installation of a $1 million dehumidifying unit to slow
corrosion.
» 53 million: Gallons of sea water pumped into the dry dock to float
the
ship
» $18 million: Cost of repairs, included repainting and replacing
hull
plates
» 500,000: Gallons of water or ballast required to refloat the ship
The Missouri and the nearby USS Arizona Memorial serve as bookends
to U.S. participation in World War II. More than 1,000 sailors died
when the Arizona was attacked by the Japanese fleet on Dec. 7,
1941—a battle that resulted in 2,300 dead and 1,100 wounded. The
Missouri, entering the war in 1944,participated in battles in the
Japanese islands, including Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and was the ship
where Japan unconditionally surrendered in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2,
1945.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who as a 17-year-old served a medical
volunteer on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, said the
Missouri serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by the armed
forces.
"This ship is a memorial," said Inouye, speaking yesterday at a
rededication gathering near the Missouri. "It's a proud day for all
of us."
Inouye, recipient of the Medal of Honor for his valor as an American
soldier in Europe during World War II, said he visited the Missouri
at a graveyard for naval ships in the mid-1990s in Bremerton, Wash.
"I could not believe what I saw. ... It was rotting away," Inouye
said. "That's no way to treat the ship."
Inouye said while some shipyards proposed using the Missouri as a
tourist attraction, putting restaurants and a cocktail lounge aboard
the vessel, the Hawaii group led by Kihune proposed it as a memorial
to the
men and women of World War II.
"Obviously the Pentagon saw the meaning of this, and here we are
today," Inouye said.
The Missouri was put into storage at Bremerton in 1955 but
recommissioned in May 1986, and participated in Operation Desert
Storm, becoming a launch platform for cruise missiles and providing
gunfire support.
It was decommissioned on March 31, 1992, and opened as a museum ship
in 1999.
More than 100 military personnel participated yesterday in a
re-enlistment ceremony aboard the ship.
"It was a historic, memorable event," said Army Sgt. Raymond Manalo,
who re-enlisted.
Manalo, who spent a one-year tour in Iraq and works as a medical
laboratory technician, said he felt honored to have been part of a
ceremony on such a historic ship.
Brooks W. Outland, a retired senior chief petty officer, said he was
a 17-year-old apprentice seaman when he stepped aboard the Missouri
in 1950.
Outland, who now works as a supervisor for volunteer groups aboard
the Missouri, said he was happy to be working with American veterans
in maintaining the ship. "This was my home for two years," Outland
said. "I still get shivers when I walk about it."
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Battleship NJ Cutting
Staff, Hours
Jan 8, 2010 8:58 am US/Eastern
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- The Battleship New Jersey is laying off workers
and
reducing hours.
The tourist attraction on the Camden waterfront will be down to
seven full-time workers after a dozen are laid off. Battleship New
Jersey Museum and Memorial president and CEO Jim Schuck says the
poor economy forced the cuts. The ship is to be closed to the public
through this month, then open only on weekends until April. Then,
seven-day operations are to return.
The state's subsidy for the attraction has been cut steadily. It was
$3 million in 2006 and $1.35 million for the current fiscal year,
which runs through June.
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Battleship marks 45th anniversary as local attraction
Fundraising run/walk slated for Saturday morning
By Curt Chapman
Staff Writer, Gulf Coast Newspapers
(Created: Thursday, January 7, 2010 10:05 AM CST)
MOBILE, Ala. — It was a major undertaking at the time. A channel
11,000 feet long, 36 feet deep and 125 feet wide was dredged in
Mobile Bay at a cost of $225,000. A total of 2.9 million cubic yards
of white sand was then deposited to form the first 75 acres of what
is now USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park.
By the time the venerable battleship was brought up the new channel
after a 5,600-mile journey from Bremerton, Wash. in the spring of
1964, Alabama schoolchildren were well on their way toward raising
$100,000 through nickels, dimes and quarters as their way of
honoring those who served aboard her. Businesses and individuals
brought the total to nearly $1 million.
Saturday marks the 45th anniversary of the day the ship opened to
the public on Jan. 9, 1965. The day is also the 63rd anniversary of
its decommissioning by the U.S. Navy.
Among the activities planned to celebrate the milestone is a
certified 5K run/walk from the battleship to Spanish Fort and back,
as well as a one-mile Sailor Sprint on the park grounds.
“It’s going to be a little cool (in temperature), but exciting,”
said Bill Tunnell, park executive director. The run is planned as a
fundraiser for the park, which suffered costly damage from
hurricanes in recent years.
Registration forms can be picked up/dropped off at McCoy Outdoor in
Mobile until noon on Thursday or online (www.active.com) until
midnight Wednesday. Race day registration at the Battleship will be
from 7–8 a.m. The race begins at 8:30.
Preregistration for the 5K is $15 for adults and $12 for children
age 16 and younger. Day of race registration is $20 for adults and
$15 for children. The Sailor Spring is $10 for everyone. All
preregistered K-12 students may take part in either event for just
$5 without the T-shirt.
The event started as a project at Dodge Elementary School in Mobile,
according to Tunnell. He said, “They started taking an interest in
the ship, and raised a nice amount of money.”
Schools for Our Ship (SOS) was a project created by the school
faculty to help raise money as the schoolchildren of the 1960s did.
Information and lesson plans are continually being added to help
educators, Scouts, and visitors.
The 5K run/walk is one of the many fundraising projects being
sponsored by SOS, and Little Red Hen Productions in assisting in
coordinating the event.
Battleship Park is now 175 acres, including Goat Island, which sits
off the ship’s stern inside Baldwin County. The entire park serves
as a tribute to all veterans.
The USS Alabama and its crew served during WWII in the Atlantic and
Pacific theaters, earning nine battle stars.
The keel of the BB-60 was laid at the Norfolk Navy Yard on Feb. 1,
1940 and was the sixth vessel to bear the name Alabama.
At the outbreak of hostilities, her hull construction was nearing
completion. The South Dakota Class battleship was launched in a
ceremony on Feb. 16, 1942, which was attended by many national
figures.
Sponsoring the vessel was Mrs. Lister Hill, wife of the Alabama
senator. The ship was placed in full commission on Aug. 16, 1942
during ceremonies at Portsmouth, Va., and Capt. George B. Wilson
assumed command.
After the ship was towed to its current place of honor, the paint
was stripped in every area that would be open to the public. The
ship also received a thorough cleaning. Crews had to park along the
road also
known as the Causeway and board a boat to reach the work site,
Tunnell said.
A $15 million project begun in 1999 included restoring the ship’s
hull and placing a cofferdam around the vessel. The submarine USS
Drum was also placed on dry land as part of the project in order to
preserve it.
Just five years later, however, Hurricane Ivan caused $400,000 in
damage at the park, with most confined to the aircraft pavilion
roof. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 then brought about an additional $7
million in damage.
Tunnell said the park is sustained through ticket sales and
donations. No city, county or state funds have ever been used for
the daily operations of the park, but money is still needed to make
up for hurricane losses.
Around two-thirds of the ship is open for public tours, including 12
of the 19 decks and one of the engine rooms.
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Group wants
WWII battleship moved to San Pedro
By Donna Littlejohn Staff Writer, Contra Costa Times
Posted: 12/20/2009 06:02:38 AM PST
A quiet effort is under way to bring the nation's
last available World War II battleship to San Pedro as a standing
waterfront attraction. Moving the USS Iowa, which carried President
Franklin Roosevelt across the Atlantic for meetings with Winston
Churchill, to San Pedro has become the focus of a Southern
California-based group called the Pacific Battleship Center. Among
its members is Roosevelt's grandson.
The group's 16-page proposal is now in the hands of the Port of Los
Angeles awaiting a go-ahead signal. "This is our last opportunity to
get a battleship here on the West Coast," said Robert Kent of
Placentia, acting president of the group. "It's all up to the port."
The idea drew interest and support at a recent meeting of San Pedro
business leaders who voted in favor of supporting the concept. At
least one waterfront advisory group also has come onboard, said
Ports O' Call Village manager Jayme Wilson, who noted the project
was seen as "worth looking into" and as a potential asset to the
community.
Known as "The Big Stick," the USS Iowa served as a presidential
escort ship during World War II. Its history continued after that
war, serving also in the Korean War before being decommissioned. The
ship was reactivated in 1984 and then decommissioned for the last
time in 1990. Outfitted with large guns and a helicopter pad, the
USS Iowa carried 151 officers and 2,637 enlisted men. The ship
earned nine battle stars for World War II service and two for Korean
service.
The projected cost to get the ship ready, moved and open would be
$8.5 million, which Pacific Battleship Center would provide. "We
don't need a dime of government money. All we need is a place to put
the ship," Kent said. "But without that `yes' (from the port), we've
kept it very quiet. To be honest, we need to get a commitment pretty
soon." Port officials appear to be interested, but all parties
stress that it is still in a preliminary state.
Seeking docking space
The Pacific Battleship Center needs a 10-year lease and initially
has looked at the berthing area just north of the Los Angeles
Maritime Museum. Because that's where a north harbor cut is planned
several years from now, it's not clear if that location would work.
An outer harbor berth where port officials eventually plan to build
a second cruise terminal could work in the meantime. Kent said the
group is hoping to get an approval soon - "I'm hoping for a good
Christmas present," Kent said.
If the port indicates it is interested in exploring the idea
further, that would clear the way for the vessel to go up for bid in
the National Register, Kent said. Because of the center's political
and financial connections, he believes Pacific Battleship Center is
the only viable party in a position to acquire the vessel. Los
Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe has given his endorsement, and
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn is expected to issue her
backing as well. The 900-foot ship is in storage in Benicia near
Vallejo.
Would other West Coast ports want the ship?
Possibly. Vallejo has had its eye on the USS Iowa for several years
now but faces dredging challenges that would first need to be
overcome. San Francisco government leaders decided not to pursue the
USS Iowa. "The political winds there pretty much shun anything
military, so it looks like the San Francisco area is not going to be
welcoming," Kent said. Long Beach, he said, doesn't have the room.
"The Port of Los Angeles and San Pedro was the Navy's base from 1919
all the way through the 1940s," Kent said. "So there's a long
history down there."
Ship is perfect SP fit
Other ships that have opened as museums, including those on the East
Coast and in San Diego, have proven to be a big tourist draw, Kent
said. "This truly is a big deal that would bring a lot of people,"
Kent said, estimating that a half-million people a year would be
conservative. The ship, which would be open for school tours and
even overnight educational programs giving visitors an idea of what
ship life was like in World War II, also would serve as a central
attraction for San Pedro's new waterfront, Kent said.
"Unless you have a big draw to get people in there, the novelty (of
the waterfront redevelopment) will wear off," he said. "We're not
asking the port for any money, just a berth and we'd pay rent," he
said.
If the center can come by its approvals, the ship could be in place
as early as summer, he said. More likely, it would take a year to 18
months.
Louis Dominguez of San Pedro, who arranged for a reunion of his Army
unit from Vietnam to be held in the waterfront town last year, said
the ship would be a natural.
"San Pedro has a history of being the home port to the battleship
fleet up until World War II," he said. "In other places where they
have ship museums, they're doing very well. It would be an immediate
draw for military reunions, which would be a great fit for San
Pedro."
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'Ingham' a living history lesson
Cutter to open to the public early next year
By Sean
Kinney
Posted - Wednesday, December 16, 2009 10:56 AM EST
Retired from political life, former Key West City Commissioner Bill
Verge's newest undertaking brings military history alive and adds
another feature to the city's waterfront.
Verge worked over the past year to bring the 327-foot U.S. Coast
Guard
cutter Ingham from the Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum in
Charleston, S.C.; the ship arrived in Key West Nov. 24 and is
berthed at
the East Quay Wall.
"They didn't strip the ship down," a smiling Verge said Monday.
"That's
what's different about this one."
The other "one" he's referring to is the Mohawk, a retired 165-foot
Coast Guard vessel that was brought to Key West in 2006 and is now a
floating maritime museum docked next to the Ingham.
Monday, Verge demonstrated the Ingham's viability, turning on an
industrial drill press and lathe in the ship's machining room. The
galley works, too, which ties in nicely with Verge's intended plan
of
offering the Ingham as an overnight destination for scout troops and
hosting on-board parties and functions.
The Ingham was launched in 1936 and served until 1988; she can sleep
200
on seven decks.
"It's like they just walked off," Port Director Raymond Archer said,
referring to the lived-in quality that distinguishes this vessel.
Verge said when the ship was still in Charleston and he was living
aboard while he worked to secure its trip to Key West, he unbolted a
door used to keep out tourists and gained access to the old encoding
room. He found charting equipment along with numerous weighted bags
marked "secret," presumably used to sink sensitive documents or
equipment in the event of capture.
The bags joined the ship's large gallery room, which has photos and
relics from her service during World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam
and
the Mariel boatlift of 1980.
Verge even pointed out a picture of the man serving on the Ingham in
World War II that eventually became his Coast Guard commanding
officer
in Baltimore in 1959.
The plan for the Ingham calls for a hard opening sometime in January
or
February, Verge said.
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Ship's legacy
could rise again
Portlander, volunteers work on restoring the
hydrofoil USS High Point
docked at North Tongue Point
By CASSANDRA PROFITA
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
In its heyday, the 115-foot USS High Point could track submarines
and
launch a torpedo while flying above the water at up to 50 knots.
It was the first in a series of four U.S. Navy hydrofoil vessels -
"the
lady of the fleet." And in 1974, it was the first of its kind to
launch
a harpoon missile, secretly testing and proving advanced
anti-submarine
technology.
After it was decommissioned in 1989, it quietly changed hands
several
times before coming to languish at Astoria's North Tongue Point
around 2000.
Portland resident and military artifact collector Terence Orme
rescued
the ship from being scrapped in a 2005 lien sale. He has spent the
past
four years cleaning it out and drumming up support to revive the
relic.
"They wanted to scrap it," said Orme. "I just thought that was a
tragedy
because it has such a great legacy. We had a different idea on
preservation. Things have been slowly falling into place ever since
then."
Orme and about a dozen volunteers - including three Navy vets who
once
served on board the ship - are working on weekends to restore the
High
Point and turn it into a floating museum.
On Saturday, Orme, his cousin Craig Orme, and Washington residents
Jeff
White and Al Carter cleaned refrigerators, polished the galley and
pointed out all the work that still needs to be done.
They've improved the ship's cooling and fuel systems and the
hydraulic
steering, but the ship is missing its turbine engines and service
diesel, without which it can't operate.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Orme said. "We're looking for
some
skilled people who have some vision of what we're trying to do."
What's a hydrofoil?
Underneath the hull of the High Point are three wing-like structures
called hydrofoils that are mounted on retractable struts. Once the
ship
reaches 23 knots, the foils lift it out of the water, reducing drag
and
improving speed.
"It travels much faster than anything else on the water," said
Carter.
"It's not as affected by the weather."
Built by Boeing Co. with a $2.08 million Navy contract in the early
1960s, the High Point has two foils in the back and one in the
front.
"It's a ship that flies," Orme said. "It has wings underneath."
It can also be propelled like a normal ship, he said, at slower
speeds.
The ship was named after its birthplace in High Point, N.C., and
delivered to the Navy at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 1963.
On its foils, High Point was capable of patrolling the coast at high
speeds, and was intended to track and chase submarines. It had a
40-millimeter remote-control machine gun and carried out weapons
testing
in Puget Sound in 1966-74.
In 1973, it set a record for the fastest Columbia River bar
crossing,
cutting through 27-foot breakers on its foils at around 40 knots
while
the bar was closed to vessel traffic.
The High Point's success laid the foundation for the Navy's fleet of
combat hydrofoils, Orme said, including six in the Pegasus class
that
were in service from 1977 to 1991.
"It was a really successful platform," he said, going on to explain
how
the Pegasus ship crossed the Panama Canal so quickly, it spooked the
Panamanian government into implementing a speed limit.
Footprints, artifacts remain
When Orme bought the High Point, it was full of trash, rotten
carpeting
and leaks.
In the pilothouse, there were gaping holes and loose wires where
monitors and gauges used to be; same with the monitoring center for
the
missing turbine engines.
But traces of its glory days were evident throughout the vessel, in
the
footprints of weapons that once sat on deck, charts of testing
routes
and foils that lasted up to 10 hours, and artifacts of life on
board.
"You can see where the torpedoes used to be," said Orme, standing on
deck and pointing a row of angled lines.
Other discolored shapes and raised platforms denote the spaces where
sensors were tied on lines and towed behind the ship on a sled to
detect
submarines and underwater mines.
"They would foil at high speed and drag the sonar sled behind," said
Carter. "They had to be real quiet."
Below the deck, Orme pointed out, the ship still has "a round funny
room" where a sonar trunk was lowered down through the ship.
Next to the round room are rows of decades-old computers.
"They needed three big racks of equipment to run the system," said
White. "Now you can run it on your laptop - maybe even on your
iPhone.
Got an app for that?"
The team's restoration effort has turned up other clue about life on
board the High Point, among them a cabinet full of mechanical fluid
samples, a VCR manual, an ashtray, a bulletin board and a stapler.
"The ashtray is original," White said. "We have a picture of them
smoking with that same tray."
They've also added some vintage items of their own, including some
original High Point patches, plaques and pictures that Orme found on
eBay.
They're piecing the story of the High Point back together through
photographs and anecdotes from veterans who worked on board.
For example, they know the ship had a live-aboard cat for 12 years
that
loved to shred phone books and make other kinds of mischief.
The cat would crouch in the wires on the ceiling, Orme said, and one
time knocked off the admiral's hat as he was walking by.
"They never took any out," White said of the thick bundles of wires
running along the ship's hallway ceilings. "They just put more in."
Volunteers needed
What the restoration team needs more than anything is some skilled
hands
to help fix the ship's many mechanical problems, Orme said.
The Port of Astoria, which recently took control of the North Tongue
Point Industrial facility, could help by providing a power hook-up
at
the dock, he said.
Orme said he's had some promising conversations with Rolls Royce
about
building new turbine motors for the High Point that would run more
efficiently than the originals on a digital platform. And he lucked
out
when he found the ship's turbine manifolds - basically stainless
steel
tubes - in a scrap pile at the Port of Astoria's Pier 3.
He pointed to the holes in the engine room where the manifolds can
be
reinstalled.
"I bought this not really realizing what I didn't have," he said.
"Finding the originals will make it a lot easier to install new
turbines. Those are monumental things to have."
Insight from the ship's last chief engineer, Fred Nachbar of
Shelton,
Wash., has been guiding the restoration process, Orme said.
He has also had help from veterans Randy Tacey of Bremerton, Wash.,
and
Sumi Arima, of Redmond, Wash., who ran the hydrofoil department for
the
Navy at one time.
Collecting stories and spending time with veterans who served on the
ship has been a highlight of the effort, Orme said.
Veteran Dale Beresford told him about the day in 1966 during
rough-water
testing when the High Point crew found themselves being tracked by a
Russian surface vessel.
"What's really great is being on the original High Point with other
veterans watching World War II movies," Orme said. "The camaraderie
that's developed with the vets and volunteers is really neat."
Every so often, vets and volunteers gather on the boat and watch
movies
in the galley, which is equipped with a large booth and a television
with a VCR. One time they watched "Kelly's Heroes"; sometimes they
put
on "Victory at Sea" and let it run all day.
Orme is trying to start a nonprofit to oversee the restoration
because,
he said, "this is way too much for one individual to deal with."
But he's pledged to continue the effort regardless.
"What we'd like to do is be an active museum on the Columbia River,"
he
said. "We'd like to be able to go to Rose Festival in 2012 to
celebrate
the 30-year anniversary of the last time it was there.”
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Navy transfers
battleship to Norfolk
Navy Times Staff report
Monday Dec 14, 2009 16:45:06 EST
Navy
officials signed the paperwork Monday to donate the service's last
battleship, the Wisconsin, to the city of Norfolk, Va., the Navy
announced. The transfer is the next step in opening up many of the
ship's interior spaces for public tours.
Before the
official transfer, Nauticus and the affiliated Hampton Roads Naval
Museum had to maintain the Wisconsin in a low level of readiness in
case the Navy needed to reactivate the battleship for service.
During that time, only the topside and a few decks in the
superstructure were available for public tours. Now that the ship
has been transferred, Nauticus will eventually be able to open more
of the ship to the public, said Monica McCoy, a spokeswoman for
Naval Sea Systems Command.
Navy and
Norfolk city officials had hoped the transfer would have taken place
earlier this year, but worries about hazardous materials aboard
prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to slow the process
until its standards were met.
The
Wisconsin will remain berthed on the waterfront at the Nauticus
museum in downtown Norfolk, where it has been tied up in a reserve
status since 2000. Decommissioned in 1991, the ship was stricken
from the Naval Vessel Registry in 2006, and so technically is the
"ex-Wisconsin." From 2000 to 2009, the Navy paid Norfolk about $2.8
million to dock the Wisconsin on the waterfront.
The
Wisconsin is the 46th museum ship donated by the Navy for display in
22 states,
according to an announcement from Naval Sea Systems Command.
Three of
the four Iowa-class battleships are on display. In addition to the
Wisconsin, the other two are the New Jersey, in Camden, N.J.; and
the Missouri, which is undergoing repairs in a drydock in Pearl
Harbor.
A
group in Valejo, Calif., is trying to acquire the class-leading
battleship Iowa for a museum attraction, but today the ship remains
moored with the National Defense Reserve Fleet, better known as the
"ghost fleet," in Suisun Bay, Calif.
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Representatives of the California group seeking to save the U.S.S.
Iowa battleship were recently at the state capitol building in Des
Moines to try and gain attention and more funding for the effort.
Marilyn Wong is a spokesperson for the Historic Ships Memorial at
Pacific Square on Mare Island where the Iowa is docked.
She says it’s right outside of San Francisco and is within 10 miles
of the internally acclaimed Napa-Sanoma wine country. Wong says the
volunteer group has already raised four million dollars which went
toward the initial steps in securing the ship. Wong says it has
mostly been a California effort and they were successful in moving
the ship from Rhode Island to its California.
She says the move will assure the ship’s financial future as a
museum and a memorial. Wong says the money also included the work
for the formal application to the nave to acquire the ship. The
group needs to raise a total of 18-million dollars and needs to show
it has raised a significant amount of that money to get the
government to sign off on the project. Wong says they would like to
get the state to chip in money too, but she admits the economy makes
it tough.
Wong says it’s “a terrible time, a most challenging time’ in the
evolution of their project, but she says the ship can’t wait and it
won’t wait. Wong says the alternatives to making the Iowa a museum
are to see the historic battleship go away. She says the ship would
be scrapped or sunk in target practice and to the group they are not
options.
The U.S.S. Iowa was the namesake for a new class of battleships and
was launched in 1942. The ship carried President Franklin Roosevelt
to Tehran for meeting of international leaders during the war in
1943. For more information on the fundraising effort, go to
www.battleshipiowa.org. Wong says her group plans to visit Iowa
frequently to continue seeking donations to help save the ship.
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Orleck
expected to depart in January
BYLINE: Tommy Mann, Jr., The Orange Leader, Texas
Dec. 9--The departure of the U.S.S. Orleck for Lake Charles is one
step closer to reality.
Ed Martin, a Lake Charles business owner and the man
responsible for the push to bring the ship to the Louisiana city,
expects the ship to be ready to move from its current berth at CBH
Services, Inc. in Orange to Lake Charles, La. in January 2010.
In July, Martin and the U.S.S. Orleck
Naval
Museum, Inc. hoped to have the ship ready by the end of fall.
However, as with any endeavor, weather and other delays have only
slightly slowed the process.
"We are in the stages of getting the final paperwork
done with the Coast Guard, Calcasieu Parish, the Port of Lake
Charles and Lake Charles Pilots Association to get the ship moved up
the (Calcasieu) river in January sometime," Martin said in a
telephone interview.
Martin said numerous volunteers have been spending
hours upon hours preparing the ship for its trip to Louisiana.
"There has been a lot of work done to that ship over
these many months," Martin added. "We still have some painting to do
on the inside, but things are really coming together."
Martin said the ship will be brought up the Calcasieu
Ship Channel under a dead tow by the U.S. Coast Guard and docked at
the north end of Enterprise Blvd in central Lake Charles, where it
will remain until officially ready for placement at the east end of
the Interstate 10 bridge and Calcasieu River.
"The remainder of the restoration work should only
take about one year," Martin added. "We hope to be done by the end
of 2010."
In the summer of 2008, Martin and several other Lake
Charles business owners sought to bring the Orleck to Lake Charles
as part of the city's downtown revitalization project.
The group moved quickly and gained approval from the
Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and the Southwest Louisiana Convention
and Visitors Bureau. The group had also met U.S. Coast Guard
requirements with a hull survey and had completed a Hazmat survey as
well by the end of July 2008.
Lake Charles City Council held a meeting on Aug. 20,
2008, and unanimously approved the measure to relocate the U.S.S.
Orleck to Lake Charles where it was to be placed along the Calcasieu
River.
In a previous interview, Martin said the group plans
on restoring the ship to as near its original condition as possible
and will use it for various tourism and community functions.
One plan is to hold reunions for U.S.
Navy
personnel at the historic Gearing Class Destroyer, which was built
in Orange in 1945 at the end of World War II. Other functions would
include special events for church groups, Boy Scouts and Girl
Scouts, such as allowing the children to come aboard, learn about
the ship and spend the night in quarters like sailors did throughout
the ship's many years of service.
"It's been a great feeling knowing we are getting
closer to having the ship in Lake Charles," Martin said.
Tommy Mann Jr. is a reporter for The Orange Leader.
He can be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com
To
see more of The Orange Leader or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://www.orangeleader.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Orange Leader, Texas Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550,
send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc.,
1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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USS Iowa discussion today
By Sarah Rohrs, Vallejo Times Herald
Posted: 11/21/2009 01:30:26 AM PST
An open house for citizens to learn more about efforts to bring the
USS
Iowa to Vallejo takes place 1 to 4 p.m. today at the Vallejo Naval
and
Historical Museum, 734 Marin St.
Citizens can learn more about the Iowa and plans to find it a new
home
along the Mare Island waterfront.
The Iowa's previous intended spot on Mare Island, between dry docks
Nos.
1 and 2, will be taken up instead by a ship dismantling business.
A possible spot closer to the Mare Island Causeway has been
identified,
but details still need to be worked out with developer Lennar Mare
Island, said Merilyn Wong, president and director of Historic Ships
Memorial at Pacific Square, the organization trying relocate the
ship.
"We want to make sure the public knows (the ship) dismantling
activities
will not harm our project," Wong said.
Vallejo's acting planning manager, Michelle Hightower, said the city
is
committed to finding an alternate location, and Lennar Mare Island
is
working with the city and foundation officials, company spokesman
Jason
Keadjian said.
Finding a new location for the Iowa will require the foundation
drafting
a new budget and relocation plan, Wong said. An ideal amount to
relocate
the Iowa would be $18 million to $20 million, she said. So far,
about $1
million has been raised, she added.
The Iowa, part of the Suisun Bay mothball fleet, transported
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Tehran Conference peace talks with
Joseph
Stalin and Winston Churchill
It also is the only battleship outfitted with a bathtub.
The state of Iowa has endorsed efforts to relocate the ship, but has
not
provided any money to relocate it, Wong said.
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NavSea: JFK available to
become a museum
Navy Times Staff report
Posted : Monday Nov 23, 2009 13:39:28 EST
The decommissioned aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy became available
Monday for donation to become a museum ship, the Navy announced, with
the JFK becoming the latest and newest retired super-carrier looking for
a home.
If Naval Sea Systems Command doesn’t get any viable interest in turning
the ship into a museum within two years, the Navy could decide to scrap
it or sink it as a target.
Initial applications to take custody of the JFK are due by Jan. 22,
NavSea spokeswoman Pat Dolan said in a written statement.
The Kennedy joins the older retired carriers Ranger and Saratoga on
NavSea’s donation-hold list.
Organizers in Portland, Ore., are trying to get the Ranger for a museum,
and a group in Rhode Island is trying to get the Saratoga, but it wasn’t
clear if there are any formal groups set up to get the JFK.
The first of those ships to become a museum would be the first
supercarrier so displayed. Although five carrier museums are active
today in the U.S. — the Intrepid in New York; the Yorktown in
Charleston, S.C.; the Lexington in Corpus Christi, Texas; and the Midway
in San Diego — all those are World War II flattops.
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Score one for Old Ironsides.
Thursday,
November 19, 2009
Boston Herald
The Boston
City Council yesterday passed a resolution backing the USS
Constitution’s “time-honored” tradition of twice-daily cannon salutes.
By taking the action, city councilors took sharp aim at the owners of
posh condos near the Charlestown Navy Yard who have waged a
letter-writing campaign to get the Navy to silence the historic ship’s guns.
“If you move into our city, respect our city,” said Councilor Sal
LaMattina, who represents Charlestown and sponsored the measure in
response to the condo owners’ complaints that the cannons blasts from
the nation’s oldest commissioned naval vessel were “disruptive to the
neighborhood.”
Councilor Maureen Feeney of Dorchester added, “To all those individuals
who chose Charlestown . . . you don’t get it. You don’t appreciate where
you live. You don’t appreciate the value, the role that Charlestown
played, not just in the city of Boston, but in the very freedom of this
country.”
Charlestown was the site of the famous Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775,
which - although the British won - sent a clear message about colonial
courage and determination.
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Hidden Battleship Tour offers a glimpse into history
November 18th, 2009
Cape Fear Business News
The public will have three chances to take a
behind-the-scenes tour of
the U.S.S. Battleship North Carolina in 2010. This special
guided tour,
called “Hidden Battleship”, begins in February and offers a
glimpse of
seldom-seen places and a guided step into World War II naval
life —
something few alive today can understand. Cape Fear Business
News had a
glimpse of the Hidden Battleship tour on Saturday.
The Showboat, as the U.S. Battleship BB 55 was nicknamed,
served in the
Pacific theater of operations and was stationed mainly in
the South
Pacific. Once below deck, one realizes how miserably hot it
must have
been. Frank Glossl, our guide and a volunteer interpreter,
made this
point abundantly clear, stating that the air conditioning
aboard ship
was designed to keep the machinery cool, not the crew.
Once off the beaten path typically open to tourists, one is
immersed
into the sights, sounds and smells of life aboard a World
War II
fighting vessel — a ship which could command 1,700 square
miles of earth
and sea with its fire power. Time seems to have stopped, and
technology
that was considered state-of-the-art in the 1930’s and 40’s
is evident
at every turn. Everyday items such as Marine Uniforms, metal
desks and
tools stand ready, waiting to be called to duty. Two of the
ship’s
radios again broadcast to the world, thanks to Azalea Coast
Radio Club
members.
Strykers Bridge from the deck
The United States Navy still owns the U.S.S. North Carolina;
consequently, nothing of battle worthiness may be removed or
sold.
Paperwork, files and personal items can still be found as if
left there
by a soon-to-return crew member. Mary Ames Booker, Curator
of
Collections, told us the staff still discovers items of
importance on
board. The archivists have also found things for which no
one seems to
know the purpose. Returning crew members often ask if the
battleship
staff found this or that item.
The Battleship North Carolina is a memorial to the men and
women who
fought for our country during World War II. It is also a
museum of
record for what man can accomplish when he must.
History is best when lived, and the Battleship North
Carolina Memorial
is something that has to be experienced. Whether you have
walked upon
its teak decks once or a hundred times, the Hidden
Battleship Tour
shines a brighter light onto what America’s greatest
generation endured
and how they lived during one of America’s finest – and most
difficult —
hours.
To experience the Hidden Battleship Tour for yourself, visit
www.battleshipnc.com and find out when you can experience
history.
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Ingham soon to head south
By Schuyler Kropf
The Charleston Post and Courier
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Coast Guard cutter Ingham is scheduled to say goodbye to Charleston
for good Thursday when a tugboat will tow it out to sea, headed for
South Florida.
After months of repairs, the Coast Guard cutter Ingham will be towed
Thursday from the Detyens Shipyards in North Charleston, heading for its
new berth at the Miami-Dade Historical Maritime Museum in Key West, Fla.
Some time after 10 a.m. the vessel will leave its berth at Detyens
Shipyards in North Charleston, where it spent the last couple of months
being repainted and readied for a five-day tow south.
The ship's exit means it is ending its association with the Patriots
Point Naval and Maritime Museum and becoming an exhibit of the
Miami-Dade Historical Maritime Museum in Key West.
Almost any spot along Charleston Harbor will provide a view of the
ship's departure.
Bill Verge, chairman of the Miami-Dade Historical Maritime Museum, has
followed the Ingham's history for years, and he said he thought it would
be a nice fit beside the cutter Mohawk.
The two ships cruised together around Greenland in the 1940s.
The repairs and tow, which cost about $600,000 that was raised mostly
through donations, included stripping off old paint and putting on fresh
coats, plus replacing some plates and making the Ingham shipshape.
"General maintenance that hadn't been done in 22 years," said Verge, who
added that under normal situations a ship will go into dry dock every
five to 10 years.
Read more about the Ingham
Ingham moving to new home in Florida; Cost of cutter's repairs key to
deal with Miami-Dade museum, published 08/08/09
The Ingham will go directly to Key West, said Verge, who has been living
on the ship for the past six weeks.
The vessel has a storied history. It worked on opium smuggling
interdiction in the 1930s and hunted German U-boats in World War II.
The ship carried out dozens of naval gunfire support missions in the
Vietnam War, and rescued at least 20 Cuban citizens during the Mariel
Boat Lift in 1980.
During 52 years in service, the Ingham became the only cutter to receive
two Presidential Unit Citations.
"It's going to be going to a good home," Verge said of its Florida future.
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Soldiers, Sailors Keep Nimitz CSG In Line With Tactical Directive
By USS Nimitz Public Affairs
November 16, 2009
USS NIMITZ
(CVN 68), Indian Ocean - Two Army soldiers serve as liaisons between the
aviators of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 and coalition forces on the ground in
Afghanistan from deep inside the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68).
Army Maj. Johnnie Gallegos and Army Sgt. 1st Class Percy Patterson joined
Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG) as Ground Liaison Officers (GLO) when
Nimitz entered the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. The work they do in
the Carrier Intelligence Center (CVIC) directly supports the July 2009
tactical directive issued by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of
coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The directive clearly and explicitly states limitations on the use of force
that could result in civilian casualties. It authorizes air strikes and
indirect fires under very limited and prescribed situations in an effort to
protect civilians and operate in a manner that is respectful to Afghan
culture.
"Everyone in the war fighting, planning and the application of combat power
is focused on Gen. McChrystal's directive to minimize civilian casualties,"
said Gallegos. "This is a great opportunity to work in a more deliberate
manner in planning Close Air Support (CAS) missions to support units working
to restore security for the Afghan people."
GLOs collaborate with Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) co-located
with U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Their goal is to integrate
the CAS providers here with the ground commander's intent and enhance their
overall battlefield perspective.
Patterson and Gallegos' work is vital in removing ambiguity from combat
situations where there is potential for confusion between forces on the
ground and forces in the air.
Another aspect of being a GLO is simply becoming acquainted with the ship
environment. When a carrier travels into this region to support OEF,
Patterson and Gallegos come on board and integrate with the crew. Since most
Nimitz class carriers are alike, they have little trouble finding their way
around.
"This is our fourth carrier and my 11th month at sea this year," said
Patterson.
Nimitz crew members see the gray-green digital U.S. Army Combat Uniform
(ACU) and try to lend a helping hand.
"A lot of people want to show us where the ship store is and tell us how to
get places on the ship. Even though we already know all that stuff, we just
let them do it," said Patterson. "I know everyone is just trying to be
helpful."
CVW-11 provides a significant 30 percent of air support to the region.
Since Sept. 18, Nimitz has launched 1,221 combat sorties in direct support
of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).
Nimitz CSG, commanded by Rear Adm. John W. Miller, is comprised of USS
Nimitz (CVN 68), embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW 11), embarked Destroyer
Squadron (DESRON) 23, and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65).
Ships assigned to DESRON 23 include the destroyers USS Pinckney (DDG 91),
USS Sampson (DDG 102) and the frigate USS Rentz (FFG 46).
Squadrons from CVW 11 include the "Black Aces" of Strike Fighter Squadron
(VFA) 41, the "Tophatters" of (VFA) 14, the "Warhawks" of (VFA) 97, the
"Sidewinders" of (VFA) 86, the "Indians" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine
Squadron (HS) 6, the "Black Ravens" of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135,
the "Providers" of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30 and the
"Wallbangers" of Carrier Airborne Command and Control Squadron (VAW) 117.
Detachments from the "Easy Riders" of Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron
Light (HSL) 37, the "Battle Cats" of (HSL) 43, the "Wolfpack" of (HSL) 45
and the "Scorpions" of (HSL) 49. Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit
(EODMU) 11 and the USNS Bridge (T-AOE-10) embarking the "Wildcards" of
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23 also accompany Nimitz CSG. |
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American
Sailor Returns Home to Egypt
Story Number: NNS091109-06
Release Date: 11/9/2009 2:37:00 PM
By Ensign Ian McMenamin, USS Rentz Public Affairs
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (NNS) -- A Sailor from the Perry-class frigate USS Rentz (FFG
46) was reunited with family members from hometown of Alexandria on Oct. 9.
For most Sailors, departure day for deployment means saying goodbye to loved
ones. For Boatswain's Mate Seaman Moutaz Alakrash, Rentz' deployment with
the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG) brought him back home for the first
time in three years.
"They were so surprised and proud," said Alakrash.
Alakrash was born in Alexandria where he lived with his family just prior to
immigrating to the United States two years ago. He joined the U.S. Navy and
became an American citizen a few weeks prior to Rentz deploying July 31.
Alakrash is a boatswain's mate aboard Rentz working in Deck Division. He
stands watch on the bridge as helmsman and lookout and assists in line
handling during underway replenishments and small boat evolutions.
During the transit into the port of Alexandria, Alakrash translated
navigation instructions between Rentz' Commanding Officer, Cmdr. David
Glenister and the Egyptian harbor pilot.
At the end of the three-day port visit, Alakrash's family hosted a farewell
dinner in their home for Glenister and some crew members.
"I was so proud to come home and to have members of the city I grew up in
come on board the ship I work on," said Alakrash. "It was even more amazing
than I had anticipated … words cannot describe."
Rentz was participating in Bright Star, a multinational training exercise in
Egypt. It is one of the largest joint exercises in the world that includes
air, ground and naval elements, and is designed to build cooperation and
readiness through training with partner nations including Egypt, Greece,
Turkey and the United States.
Nimitz CSG, commanded by Rear Adm. John W. Miller, is comprised of USS
Nimitz (CVN 68), embarked Carrier Air Wing 11, embarked Destroyer Squadron
23, and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Chosin (CG 55). Ships assigned to
DESRON 23 include the destroyers USS Pinckney (DDG 91), USS Sampson (DDG
102) and Rentz.
Squadrons from CVW 11 include the "Black Aces" of Strike Fighter Squadron
41, the "Tophatters" of VFA 14, the "Warhawks" of VFA 97, the "Sidewinders"
of VFA 86, the "Indians" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 6, the "Black
Ravens" of Electronic Attack Squadron 135, the "Providers" of Fleet
Logistics Support Squadron 30 and the "Wallbangers" of Carrier Airborne
Command and Control Squadron 117.
Helicopter detachments include the "Easy Riders" of Helicopter
Anti-submarine Squadron Light 37, the "Battle Cats" of HSL 43, the "Wolfpack"
of HSL 45, the "Scorpions" of HSL 49 and the "Wildcards" of Helicopter Sea
Combat Squadron 23. Also accompanying the Nimitz CSG are Explosive Ordnance
Disposal Mobile Unit 11 and the USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10).
The Nimitz CSG is on a routine deployment to the region. Operations in the
U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Operations are focused on reassuring regional
partners of the United States' commitment to security, which promotes
stability and global prosperity. |
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Navy
Commissions USS New York in Big Apple
Story Number: NNS091107-10
Release Date: 11/7/2009 4:22:00 PM
From USS New York (LPD 21) Public Affairs
NEW YORK (NNS) -- USS New York (LPD 21), the fifth San Antonio-class
amphibious transport dock, built with steel salvaged from the World Trade
Center, was commissioned here Nov. 7 in a ceremony held in the shadow of the
city for which it is named.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former New York senator, was
the keynote speaker for the ceremony.
"This ship carries with it searing memories of September 11," said Clinton.
"Lives cut short, families ripped apart, a nation attacked. And in that
steel, burned but unbroken, lives the spirit we saw on 9/11 and the days
that followed, the bravery of the rescuers, the resolve of the survivors,
the compassion of this city, the patriotism of this great country."
Calling USS New York a symbol of freedom similar to the Statue of Liberty,
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus explained how this ship will be a reminder
of all New York and the nation went through on September 11th.
"Today, we witness the birth of another memorial to liberty. Eight years
ago, this city witnessed the worst atrocities committed against our country.
The New York will be a visible testimony to our resilience, to the character
of this city, to the strength of this country," said Mabus.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead spoke to the ship's future and
what it will mean to Americans through the years.
"Wherever she sails in the next 40 years…USS New York will forever conjure
the valor, the sacrifice, the heroism and the tenacity of New York," said
Roughead.
New York Governor David Paterson called the day "a great day for America, a
great day for New York and a great day for everyone who believes in freedom
and justice."
USS New York, the sixth Navy ship named for the state, was built at Avondale
Shipyard in New Orleans by Northrop Grumman and christened March 1, 2008.
The ship arrived in New York Nov. 2 and rendered honors at the World Trade
Center site before pulling into Pier 88 on the Hudson River.
Thousands of veterans and invited guests witnessed the ceremony, which was
also broadcast live in Times Square and on the Navy.mil website. The
commissioning was the culmination of a week-long celebration of the Navy and
Marine Corps team and the ship in New York City.
New York is an amphibious transport dock designed to transport Marines and
their equipment. It will be used to support the nation's maritime strategy,
to include humanitarian assistance and maritime security operations. The
ship's homeport will be in Norfolk, Va. |
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