USS Yorktown

USS Yorktown   …   Thursday 25th April 2013

The USS Yorktown is an Essex class aircraft carrier that was launched in 1943 and fought in the Pacific in WW2. It's now a museum open to the public and moored at Patriots Point across the river from Charleston. I took the 1.30pm water taxi over the river expecting to spend a couple of hours visiting the carrier. As things turned out it was almost 6pm by the time I caught the return boat. Touring the Yorktown was fascinating. At one time 3500 men served on board - it's a big ship but I couldn't see where all those people would go. I was amazed by the bridge - the wheel is smaller than ours and the visibility for the helmsman was terrible! I think the truth is that the helmsman simply steers the direction he is told. The engine room was also pretty impressive - it's hard to imagine just how hot and noisy it must have been in there. I didn't get the impression that it was a very comfortable environment for the crew, but they do seem to have been fed well. How do you feed 3500 hungry sailors 4 square meals a day - breakfast, dinner, supper and midnight rations? There was a recipe on display for cookies - 10,000 at a time, including 100lb of chocolate chips! In addition to the aircraft carrier there is a WW2 destroyer, USS Laffey, and a post WW2 submarine, USS Clamagore. The destroyer was particularly interesting because it faced a sustained Khamikaze attack over the course of 90 minutes in which it was targeted by some 22 planes, hit by six of them as well as 4 x 500lb bombs and still survived to fight another day. This was the first submarine I've ever been on and I'm telling you the space is really tight. This would not be somewhere I would like to work. During the afternoon a couple of thunder storms rolled through. I thought these had all passed by the time I was making my way back, but 10 minutes from the dinghy the skies opened and by the time I got back to the boat I was totally soaked. 

Mike

Flight deck of USS Yorktown

F14 jet engine

Jet - can't remember which one!

The engine telegraph station