Maritime: From Tall Ships to Cruise Ships to Warships.

[NorthernLight]

In the late 1970s, my roommate was a cook on the Royalton. One day when the ship was in port, she took me to have a look. I'd never seen a ship up close before, and I couldn't believe how huge it was. She said it was the smallest ship on the Great Lakes.

She showed me her sleeping quarters. Very noisy, right next to some machinery.

The Royalton was built in 1924 and scrapped in 1979.

 

[Magna-Carta]

View attachment 270897

Does one of these count?

Well go on then, since its you.

 

[Magna-Carta]

USS Constitution as a Visitor, Destroyer Tender as crew, Tin Can as Crew (not the actual ship but representative of the class.
The Tender was the only ship in the US Navy to be called "he". It was nicknamed "Doc" and carried the Disney character from the Snow White painted on his stack.
View attachment 270893View attachment 270894View attachment 270895

I would like to visit USS Constitution one day. Theres still time yet

 

[Magna-Carta]

In the late 1970s, my roommate was a cook on the Royalton. One day when the ship was in port, she took me to have a look. I'd never seen a ship up close before, and I couldn't believe how huge it was. She said it was the smallest ship on the Great Lakes.

She showed me her sleeping quarters. Very noisy, right next to some machinery.

The Royalton was built in 1924 and scrapped in 1979.
View attachment 270899

Reminds me of SS Edmund Fitzgerald?

 

[MrPants]

Interesting visual:

 

[MrPants]

Reminds me of SS Edmund Fitzgerald?

 

[Owlivia]

I've been in kayaks and canoes: local rivers, ferries: San Francisco, Connecticut River, Chesapeake Bay MD, NY Harbor, over also to the Statue of Liberty, submarines, whaling ship: Mystic Seaport, CT, car ferry: CT, Queen Mary 2 for crossing the Atlantic a few times, Thames River London, and a couple of others.

Been to Portsmouth Dockyard a couple of times. Found the Mary Rose exhibit eerie and sad. Walking bent over on the Victory is memorable. Went on a few other ships and took a boat out for the tourist cruise.

Cutty Sark in Greenwich was a nice time out, the museum and all the figureheads made for some nice photos. Wish I'd had more time to walk around the city.

 

[Been There]

Before aircraft carriers, battleships ruled the seas. Once technology caught up to the engineering and development of carriers, battleships were no longer necessary. Submarines still play an active part in the military, but I don’t believe we have any battleships at sea.

I applied to rake a tour if the USS Ford, but got my request in too late, so they are taking requests after the dnd if April and I will try again. The ship must be in port to apply for a tour.

Carriers are awesome engineered machines.

 

[jujube]

I toured an old Russian submarine in San Diego once and gained great respect for anyone who could survive in such horrible living conditions.

The Spousal Equivalent, during his Navy career, was on the small crew that put a ship " into commission", which meant he was on the ship's first crew while it was being readied for it's service. This made him a "Plankholder".

That ship came to Port Canaveral a few years ago on it's ceremonial "farewell cruise" and we went to tour it. He took his Plankholder certificate and book along and they were quite excited to have a Plankholder on board. We got a special tour. At the end of the cruise, the Navy decided not to retire the ship after all. Oh, well.

 

[MrPants]

In the small town of Pictou Nova Scotia (Canada) there's an ongoing ship build happening. It's a replica of "The Hector", a sailing ship that brought just over 200 Highland Scots to this small settlement on Sept. 15th 1773! These initial 200 settlers from Scotland were the first of many that followed to their new home in Canada that they called: New Scotland.

Pictou, a quite little east coast village that lies a little way off the main highway. Scenic little town that moves at it's own leisurely pace.

 

[NorthernLight]

When I was 10 or 12ish, I had a friend whose father was building a boat in his driveway. I didn't think anything of it. It was just part of the neighborhood scene, like someone having a dog or a garden. After a couple of years, the family moved away. They were traveling the world by boat!

Reminds me of SS Edmund Fitzgerald?

Yes, I had another friend who was a sailor back then. When he applied for unemployment insurance, they asked him why he'd quit his job. He said, "The Edmund Fitzgerald sank."

 

[Magna-Carta]

105 years & 1 Month ago. The sinking of a Liner, S.S. Tuscania by a german U-Boat. Sailing from New Jersey to Liverpool with over 2000 American service men on board.

The S.S. Tuscania was a British passenger liner that was used to transport troops and supplies between the United States and Europe. On February 5, 1918, while en route from New Jersey to Liverpool with over 2,000 people on board, the Tuscania was hit by a torpedo fired by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland.

The survivors were rescued by the Royal Navy destroyers Mosquito and Pigeon, and by an Irish fishing boat.

The explosion killed over 200 people, including more than 100 American soldiers.

 

[Magna-Carta]

During his service in the North Atlantic (WW2), my granduncle was aboard HMS Itchen, (a River Class Frigate). On a fateful day, the ship picked up 81 survivors of the HMCS St. Croix, which had been sunk during a U-boat attack.

Tragically, just three days later, on September 23rd, 1943, HMS Itchen was sunk by U-666 at approximately 2:02 am. The combined crew of the HMS Itchen and the survivors of the HMCS St. Croix onboard faced a devastating loss. HMS Itchen blew up with the loss of 230 lives and 3 survivors. Sadly, my granduncle was among those who did not survive.

My granduncles name is on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in south west England.

 

[MrPants]

Halifax, Nova Scotia - Canada WW1
On the morning of December 6, 1917, two ships (the Imo a Norwegian ship & the Mont-Blanc a French ship) collided in the Halifax Harbour Narrows. Unknown to onlookers who rushed to watch the aftermath of the collision, the Mont-Blanc was heavily laden down with explosives being transported into Halifax. The collision caused barrels of photochemical liquid to topple over, spilling their contents onto the deck and that ultimately resulted in a fire followed later by the explosion which killed 1,700 people and injured 9,000 more. Devastation was spread over blocks of the city of Halifax as the ship Mont-Blanc was transformed into a 3 kiloton bomb! Material from the Mont-Blanc, including huge chunks of the ship's steel hull, were recovered later at a distance of 8 kilometers (5 miles) away.

Here's a picture I took while visiting the Atlantic Maritime Museum a couple of years ago. It's a large chunk of the Mont-Blanc's steel hull found 8 kilometers from the blast site. It's twisted like it was made of plasticine:


The story of the explosion is here:
https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion

If you ever find yourself in Halifax Nova Scotia, the Marine Museum in downtown Halifax is a must see!! Lots of maritime history including a huge display of Titanic artifacts and details of the three cemeteries in the Halifax area where many of the dead are buried. Fascinating stuff!

 

[Magna-Carta]

A photo of HMS Campbeltown (an ex American WW1 destroyer) during Operation Chariot.

Prepare to be amazed by the epic tale of HMS Campbeltown during Operation Chariot! This ex-American WW1 destroyer, in the hands of the British Royal Navy, fearlessly charged the gates of a French Dry-dock, armed with just over four tons of explosive in its bow. Steaming up the estuary towards the gate with the ships hull scraping along sand banks, & under a hailstorm of fire.

When the explosion finally erupted, it was heard for miles around. Even German souvenir hunters, who had boarded the ship, were blown onto the roof of the U-Boat pens 400 yards away! The massive blast destroyed the gate and sent a colossal wall of water sweeping HMS Campbeltown into the dry-dock.

But this wasn't just any ordinary mission. HMS Campbeltown was sacrificed for a greater cause - to prevent the German battleship Tirpitz from using the dock. The Tirpitz was the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy at that time, and the dry dock was the only one on the Atlantic coast of Europe large enough to accommodate it.

The mission was a success, but it didn't come without a heavy price. A raiding party of British Commandos ran around the port facility, blowing things up left and right. Of the 612 men who undertook the raid, only 228 returned to Britain, while 169 were killed and 215 became prisoners of war. But that wasn't all - the German casualties included over 360 dead!

89 members of the raiding party were awarded decorations, including five Victoria Crosses. One of these Victoria Crosses was awarded to a gunner on a Motor Launch in the estuary. He went head to head with a German destroyer. The gunner on board the Motor Launch had been shot 16 times by the German’s, but kept on firing until he passed out due to the loss of blood. The captain of the German destroyer recommended that the British gunner received the Victoria Cross, and he got it.

Someone should make a movie about it.