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Reply With QuoteThe 4 ship Yellowstone class. Commissioned between 1980-83. Last one decommissioned in 1996.
I know Destroyer Tenders were still in use even into the Viet Nam War. I was inspecting a Destroyer in Kaosiung, Taiwan that had a problem coming alongside her tender in the harbor. It knocked one of her "DerbY' shaped domes off of her port AN/ULQ-6 ECM antennas. The next day another Destroyer of the same class came in to tie up alongside the one I was on but the Harbor pilot did not allow for a 20 knot crosswind. The high anchor of the other ship ripped open the ASROC magazine of the ship I was on. Not only on the ship but two decks up watching all the aluminum crumple up with great interest. There's a photo of the crunching on page 124 of my book. The next few weeks were spent by repair parties from the Tender trying to patch up the hole with aluminum plating.
How much longer Tenders stayed around is anybody's guess. A few old Seaplane Tenders were kept in service until the 90's. But not to serve Seaplanes but as general auxiliary ships for repair or used as a test ship for weapons systems such as the Norton Sound.
Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.
The 4 ship Yellowstone class. Commissioned between 1980-83. Last one decommissioned in 1996.
Clean lines for a tender, though I miss the 5-inch gun on the bow.Originally Posted by Gun Grape
Even if it is no longer practical, I still think a U.S. Naval ship should always have firepower.
JFK felt the same way and gave a directive to the USN that their ships would at minimum have a decent sized gun aboard after witnessing a missle launch failure.Clean lines for a tender, though I miss the 5-inch gun on the bow.
Even if it is no longer practical, I still think a U.S. Naval ship should always have firepower.
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
President Kennedy said the same thing about the nuclear powered Cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9). He said it was a nice ship but needed a couple of guns on it.
After they added a couple of 5-inchers, our pattern makers had to revise our large parade model of the Long Beach to show the guns. But they rigged them up to pop acetylene charges when on it's parade float.
Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.
Darn good that a US President has Navy background.
It supports Arleigh Burke's doctrine of Pax Britania and Pax Romana.
It also adds to the lore and appearance of the Fletcher DD's.
Fast moving DD's which brisle with potent 5-inch guns.
The more I read about the Fletcher's the more I perfer their appearance over the
the later WWII DD classes produced by the US of A.
Of course there is the Le Fantasque class of 1935 that carried five 5.4 inch guns and nine torpedo tubes and could reportedly achieve speeds of 45 knots vs the Fletcher's top spped of 38 knots.
Does Le Fantasque class still retain the record speed for a steamship and for any destroyer?
Last edited by blidgepump; 26 Oct 11, at 13:39.
Does Le Fantasque class still retain the record speed for a steamship and for any destroyer?
Still diggin through the websites but Wiki says...
The WW2 French destroyer Le Terrible once held the Guiness World Record for the fastest (47 knots) destroyer, but it may have been broken since. 31 knots was a slow destroyer speed in WW2, but any way you look at it, destroyers are still the fastest displacement warships on the high seas. Today they use gas turbines (jet engines) instead of diesel which probably makes them even faster, but they do not use their maximum speed except when necessary.
Discovered these books while looking for more details on the Fletcher DD's.
Quite a bit of information for us flatlanders...
Especially interesting passages in the Watch Officer's Guide.
Last edited by blidgepump; 28 Oct 11, at 22:29.
Stumbled across this photo of a "Mousetrap ASW" device mounted on the forecastle of the USS Turner before the Turner sank in Ambrose Channel on January 3, 1944 after an internal explosion.
Two views ( one amended ) illustrating how closely one needs to view the overhead photos.
Last edited by blidgepump; 30 Oct 11, at 16:42.
Follow up on the two Pearl Harbor Veterans that I thought you might find interesting...
Mr. Dorwin Lamkin, left his hometown of Hudson, Wisconsin for the first time in 1940 to join the U.S. Navy. He was a corpsman on the USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor. After the attack he went to the Navy Lab school and served on the USS San Francisco from 1943 - 45 at the battles of Tarawa, Kwajelin, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He was in a receiving station in San Francisco expecting to be a part of the invasion force when the atomic bomb was droped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki and sent to the Phillipines as a lab technician, later ending his 6 years of service as a Pharmacist's Mate 1st Class.
A youtube video
USS San Francisco CA 38 - YouTube
Last edited by blidgepump; 31 Oct 11, at 02:42.
It's been a bit since this thread. But, thought I would offer up a little something I found recently,.
She languished at a pier in Cardenas Mexico for years. But, the most recent info that can be found spells a different fate than the last info on her Wikipedia page.
This was taken from a Mexican site. The date is not known. However, she is no longer in Cardenas. Where is she now? Hopefully, not at a ship breaker!
El buque Cuitláhuac, de museo a chatarra | ebooking.com
English translation of that story:
From heaven to hell, without scales. Thus the last days of ARM-Cuitláhuac, a Mexican warship which was to become a museum could be defined and everything now indicates that he will end his life as scrap.
An organization linked to the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás Hidalgo (UMSNH) had requested that the vessel, which was given leave by the Mexican Navy in 2001, is remodeled for educational purposes, to assist the students of marine biology. Indeed, many thought that the ship could become a tourist attraction. However, the reality shows that the project wrecked.
The intention was to move to the Cuitláhuac in the Malecon of Lázaro Cárdenas to enable it as a Museum, which would help the formation of the students of the UMSNH (who is building a campus in the area) and help attract tourism. The promoters of the project came to ensure that the funding of the Museum would be provided by local port and industrial entrepreneurs.
Everything seemed to smile for the Cuitlahuac, which was used by United States in World War II before being acquired by Mexico. For three decades he served the Aztec army once, in 2001, his final discharge.
The end of the story, however, seems to be not happy. Benjamín Rodríguez, one of the promoters of the Museum, said that the authorities are determined to convert the ship scrapped before the advanced deterioration of the hull.
"It would be a pity that becomes junk ship that can even be useful not only as a tourist attraction, if not by what it can provide to the University activity to contemplate as a tool for training", said Rodriguez.
Reply With Quote
"In its glory days, the United States Navy destroyer John Rodgers was one of the most decorated warships of World War II. Now, its hull rusting and its big guns whitened by bird droppings, the abandoned destroyer finds itself in the midst of a final battle, one that could turn the historic ship into a museum or, alternatively, into a heap of scrap." There have been no recent posts on the Rodgers. All the articles are dated to 2008 ??
Little known factoid, this is one of the Fletcher's that Arleigh Burke supported giving to smaller nations that they might protect some of their own coastline instead of depending upon the US Navy.....
Actually, that story is from earlier this year, 2011! The Mexican government was going to give it to a school in Tampico for "educational purposes". As in the wikipedia notes, as of Jan. 2011 there was no word on the status. This make that chance look bleak!
On the latest satellite pics she is gone from Cardenas where she has sat for years. I have searched most of the Mexican ports, dry docks and Tampico. But, I have found no sign of her yet!
They certainly are! You should have seen how high they rode after Hurricane Irene! The ship was 20 higher in the river! In the Winter when we move her across the river to get her out of the way of ice, they are pulled to the top of the dolphins. Here's a little closer look at one of the fenders and the first dolphin being driven in!The fenders are moored / anchored and the larger black fender slides up and down the columns with the change in the Hudson's river stage?
Or so it appears
Luckily, we have a good size and active veteran crew (though some not so young!).
Perhaps reconsider the hulls Cathodic protection systems if the hull is deteriorating that quick.
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
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