Regarding Art's post about the USS Oregon (WWI dreadnaught), the top of the tower (?) of the ship was saved and is permanently displayed at Portland's Waterfront Park.
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Regarding Art's post about the USS Oregon (WWI dreadnaught), the top of the tower (?) of the ship was saved and is permanently displayed at Portland's Waterfront Park.
I know the feeling about a ship going to scrap. My first ship was a Fletcher class destroyer. Although it appeared she was jinxed from the start it served with distinction and lasted the longest. Read her history) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Uhlmann_(DD-687)
What I'm wondering now is about is the first of the CVN-21 class under construction. I know it was planned to have the first ship named Gerald Ford but wouldn't be a bit surprised if it's not renamed and get handed the USS Obama
heavily damaged at Coral Sea, limped into PH and all necessary repairs were done by the Shipyard there under the motto: The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes awhile longer". Sent her out to final final battle @ Midway.
Just a historical note, the 1920 5:3:1 arms reduction ignoredboth carriers and submarinea, the best benefit was the reuse of the two heavy cruiser hull already under construction. We know them as: USS Lexington & USS Saratoga.
The Lex was sunk @ Coral Sea, the Saratoga made it thru to the surrender, then used as a target @ Bikini.
I think there is a porthole or some other fixture on the current USS Enterprise from CV6.
... that the current Enterprise (CVAN-65) is scheduled to be decommissioned and scrapped? The closest to dieing I ever came was off her front end on 6 Nov. 1968! :move eek:
Small correction. The Lexington (CV-2)and Saratoga (CV-3)were built on BATTLE-cruiser hulls, not heavy cruiser hulls. Battle-cruisers were described by British Adm. Jackie Fisher as "Eggs armed with sledge-hammers". They were generally larger than battle-wagons, fast, with the same caliber guns....but much lighter armor. They were based on the concept of being able to out-run what they couldn't out-gun.
Both the British and the Huns invested heavily in Battle-cruisers before WW I....while the US was skeptical of the entire concept, and didn't even authorize construction of the "Lexington" class CB's until 1916. BTW, Fisher's description of the flaws in the Battle-cruise concept were proven on a number of occasions, Dogger Bank and particularly Jutland where most of British Adm. Beatty's Battle-cruiser force was destroyed...and German Adm. Hipper's "Fast Scouting Battle-cruiser Force" was savaged in turn.....HMS Hood was the last British Battle-cruiser built....look how well THAT turned out!
The nature of the battle-cruiser.....big and fast, made them a "natural" for conversion to aircraft carriers....and a lot of them were! IJN's Akagi and Kaga were both battle-cruiser conversions...ditto the HMS Glorious, HMS Courageous, and HMS Furious (FWIW: The 15" guns pulled off the Courageous and Glorious when the vessels were converted to aircraft carriers were, under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, supposed to be destroyed, and the Royal Navy dutifully reported to the Home Office that they were. In reality, the guns and mounts were dismantled, sealed in iron boxes, and hidden under rather massive Royal Navy coal piles at Portsmouth. These guns became the "X" and "Y" turrets of the Royal Navy's LAST battleship, HMS Vanguard, finished after WW II.
John
"... that the current Enterprise (CVAN-65) is scheduled to be decommissioned and scrapped? The closest to dieing I ever came was off her front end on 6 Nov. 1968!"
The closest I ever came to dying was January 14, 1969.
Indy
Naval Aviators have always referred to carriers as boats and sometimes call aircraft ships. The front end is where you take off and the *** end is what you try not to hit when landing. By the way most aviators did not have "boot CPO's" we had Marine DI's instead. We also wore brown shoes and the squids had black ones. We did however know where the headlights are located on boats.:thup:
Fig's have pilots and they know enough to call it the bow, or are edumacated by "others" until they do! They may forget when they travel to the "other Navy"...but they knew it when they left!:D