Day 263
Miles Traveled: 0
Total Miles Traveled: 3318
Today we took the water taxi across the Cooper River to Patriots Point. The Aircraft Carrier USS Yorktown is on display there. The Yorktown (CV-10), commissioned in 1943, was the tenth aircraft carrier to serve in the U.S. Navy. She played a significant role in the Pacific offensive against Japan by participating in one of the largest carrier vs. carrier battles, The Battle of the Philippine Sea. In addition, her aircraft assisted in the sinking of the super battleship, Yamato, signaling the end of the once mighty Imperial Japanese Navy. Her crew consisted of 380 officers, 3,088 enlisted men, and an air group of 90 planes. After serving in World War II, she was converted to an antisubmarine carrier for use in the Vietnam War. In 1968, she was involved with the recovery of the Apollo 8 astronauts. Two years later, she was decommissioned.
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| USS Yorktown (CV-10) |
While touring this ship, we tried to image what it would have been like to be part of the crew. Unless you were an officer, the accommodations were minimal and not very private.
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| sleeping quarters for enlisted crew |
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| wash area for enlisted crew |
On a positive note, you would be rewarded for serving with chocolate chip cookies. These would be made in batches of 10,000 (that averages out to about 3 cookies for each crew member). Below is a picture of the ingredients required to make one batch (a recipe is also included in case anyone is interested in baking for a group the size of a naval ship's crew).
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| ingredients for batch of chocolate chip cookies on the USS Yorktown |
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| recipe included |
The helm station and captain's bridge were important places on the ship. The captain had a sleeping quarters and head (bathroom) right next to the helm station.
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| helm station (undergoing some renovations) |
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| captain's bridge with captain's chair |
An impressive area of the ship was the flight deck. Multiple planes were on display on this deck as well as in the hangar bay.
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| planes on display on flight deck |
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| on forward part of flight deck looking down the runway to the back of boat |
In addition to the USS Yorktown, there were two other vessels and The Vietnam Experience exhibit to explore. Patriots Point is home to the destroyer USS Laffey (DD-724) which also served in World War II. Due to time, we did not tour this vessel. We did take time to walk through the submarine USS Clamagore (SS-343). She was commissioned in June 1945 just a few weeks before the end of World War II and spent her 30-yr career operating out of Key West, Charleston, and New London. She was modified to a Guppy III class, which is the final configuration attained by diesel submarines before the introduction of nuclear submarines. Decommissioned in 1975, she is the only Guppy III surviving as a museum ship. We thought the accommodations of the USS Yorktown were tight, the ones on the USS Clamagore were even worse.
The Vietnam Experience exhibit was a landside exhibit designed to immerse visitors in what it was like to live and work in a US Navy Advanced Tactical Support Base (Brown Water Navy). The site was staged with model buildings, structures, vehicles, and noises to replicate what a base would look and sound like during the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War.
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| Vietnam Experience site |
There were river boats used during Vietnam. However, these boats looked a little different than the boats we have seen on our home waters, the Ohio River (or any of the other rivers we have traveled on this journey). Machine guns usually are not mounted on the bow and gunwale (side) of the boat.
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| Patrol Boat, River (PBR) |
After completing our visit to Patriots Point, we took the water taxi back across Cooper River to Charleston's Waterfront Park. This is a lovely park which includes a pier with seating and swings, lots of grass, trees, and flowers, and two water fountains.
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| pier at Waterfront Park |
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| Fountain, trees, and flowers at Waterfront Park |
We stopped for dinner at a Chicago Irish pub before walking back to the marina and getting on our own "ship", the Seahorse.
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