USS Yorktown

Norman and I kicked off December with a boys trip to South Carolina!

Organised annually by the Boy Scouts we had the opportunity to travel to Charleston and spend 2 nights on the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown. I took the day off from my new job at Land-Rover Cary and we drove down Friday afternoon, ate lunch and dinner on the road, arriving in the evening. We were shown to our quarters which were small metal rooms filled with about 50 tightly arranged bunks and an equal number of loud boy scouts!

After everyone had figured out where to sleep, we had to assemble for a fire drill after which we had free reign of the facilities, Norman and I wandered around and ended up at the theater watching Tora, Tora, Tora until it was very late.

Saturday morning greeted us with reveille and shortly after Mess Call (We ate in shifts just as sailors would have) and then had to go explore. The many deck levels are open to the public and contain HUNDREDS of scale models and diorama's. Norman would team up with his friends (primarily Sam, who travelled down with us with his Dad) and go missing for extended periods, exploring. As well as the lower decks containing the models, the engine rooms, laundry, stores, machine shops etc.. etc... the second deck (hangar deck) was open and contained dozens of aircraft, movie presentations, the theater, cafe and suspended over the cafe... a B25!!!

Berthed alongside the Yorktown is a submarine the USS Clamagore and during Saturday we went down and walked through the cramped quarteres and checked out the torpedo tubes etc... It was a lot more cramped than the aircraft carrier!

In the afternoon we went ashore for the first time and drove to a museum where the remains of the Hunley a confederate submarine, one of the first submarines built and the very first submarine to sink another vessel. I have to admit that I had seen a Discovery Channel special on the Hunley and this was a big reason for me wanting to take the trip.

Here is a picture of Norman turning the screw on a mock up.

Here is a picture from the carrier showing the sunset over Charleston in the evening before...

Saturday evening the Troop organised a trip into downtown Charleston for a ghost tour! Our tour guide took us to various ghost sites and told ghoulish tales, the boys loved it.

Another late night but it was our final evening, we hit the hay only to be awakened again by reveille and mess call after which we were given the remainder of the day to explore, we made it to about lunch time before hitting the highway. As you can see it was a tiring though stimulating trip.

Here are more pictures.