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USS Yorktown, interesting, but.....

Navy Chief

Navy Chief

Senior Member
Just got back from trip to Charleston area. My father in law and I visited the USS Yorktown (my first time). The ship, now a museum obviously, has quite a history; both WW2 era, and afterwards. But I was a little disappointed at the commercial aspect. The City of Charleston takes in quite a lot of revenue. I am sure the Yorktown, and other ships on display there, require a great deal of upkeep. But there are a couple things that bothered me. When we arrived, they collected parking fees from us, then the tickets just to board the Yorktown were $13 each (normally $16, but with vet discount). I thought that was still a little steep, but ok. We got on the ship, and took the elevator (yes, you read that right) to the flight deck. The aircraft on display are in sad shape; paint peeling, corrosion, etc.... One aircraft has an interesting paint job (I suppose for memorial reasons) One side is painted in VA-46 colors: A-7E Bu.No 159291, and the opposite for VA-153 colors: A-7A Bu.No 153176 deployed on the USS Ranger. I did some net research, and 153176 was flown by Commander D. D. Aldern United States Navy, and shot down over Laos by triple A fire. I've never seen a display aircraft painted that way though.

There are many displays onboard the Yorktown, and we could have easily spent the entire day. But my father in law, being 87, gets tired quickly, so our visit was short. Upon leaving the ship, there is a board near the ticket booth, with pictures of visitors (they take one of you when you enter the ship display area). Very nicely done pictures, with envelopes. As I picked ours from the board, a man approached me, and politely asked for $20 for the pictures. When I said, "no thank you", he simply threw them in a trash can. I am sure the photographer is a vendor who rents space there to sell pictures, but that was a disappointing way to end the visit.

Navy Chief
 
I see your point. The dignity of the Ship and displays doesn't mix well with the "tourist-trap" style grubby self-promotors.

I suppose I can rationalize the parking and maybe entrance fees for upkeep costs - but not the other.
 
The Parking fee is to help paint the Ships which are in bad need of it.

It was not that way just only two years ago when I first spent most of a day on the USS Laffey DD-724, USS Yorktown CV-10, USS Clamagore SS-343, and USCGC Ingham WHEC-35. The paint has deteriated bad this last year. We came over the Bridge into Mount Pleasent two weeks ago. As the Carrier came into site I noticed how bad the paint was.

Patriots Point is owned by the State of South Carolina but it is not funded by the State. All of the funds to support the site come from Sales at the Gift Shop which includes the Pay for it as you leave Picture that I myself did not buy.

Read here for information http://www.patriotspoint.org/support/about/

CV10 is not the original Carrier that was in WWII that was CV5 if I am correct. It was a straight deck carrier that was sunk while being towed back to the states to be repaired after it was gutted by fire. CV10 start out life as Bon Homme Richard but was renamed Yorktown after CV-5 was sunk after the battle of Midway.

For any of you interested in going to the park you need two to three days to do it all. Start early and stay late and you might get it done in two days.

The USS Laffey " The Ship That Would Not Die" is Closed. There is no posted schedule on when it will be reopened. It is an amazing site in its self when it opens those of you that can visit it.

I don't begrudge them for trying to make every dime they can keeping these ships from falling apart has to be expensive. I just only spend what I can or want to.
 
Hi Navychief,

Its quite possible that the photographer was actually helping in his own way towards the upkeep of the ship. People like him have to pay a ground rate to the museum or whatever they are trading on, it might be a flat rate rent or a percentage of the take. The price they charge is down to them, and which may fluctuate from season to season.

Dangerous D, you are right and wrong, CV10 saw considerable service during WW2 as well as being the star of a film "The Fighting Lady" made aboard her during her shakedown cruise.

regards Collin:ernae:
 
Collin said:
Hi Navychief,


Dangerous D, you are right and wrong, CV10 saw considerable service during WW2 as well as being the star of a film "The Fighting Lady" made aboard her during her shakedown cruise.

regards Collin:ernae:
Click to expand...

I kind of phrased that wrong or was incomplete in the thought (something I do often) I was pointing it was not the original but the replacement. I did know it saw considerable use. What I did not know was the angled deck was added later. I never thought about that at all.
 
Unfortunately, there is something wrong with aircraft carrier museums in this country. I’ve been to both Yorktown and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lexington</st1:place></st1:City>, and in both cases, they’ve gutted the ship to put in museum displays, movie theaters, elevators, gift shops, and God knows what else. Very sad. Contrast this with the battleships, specifically <st1:State w:st="on">North Carolina</st1:State> and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:State>. At the battleship sites, the ship IS the museum, rather than just an empty structure to house other displays.
 
I have been on the North Carolina back in 97 before they had gathered enough teak to redo the deck.A friend of mine was there about 3-4 years ago and mentioned to me they had finished the deck and she was in good shape,hot as hell the day I went.But it was a good time.The Texas and Alabama are on my list.:friday:
 
Yeah I missed NC by about 5 minutes we left Fayetteville I thought I good enough time but got a little turned around on some back country roads way before tom tom I told the chick that I had come 3000 miles but she didn't give ahh ratts...... so i didn't get to go on board her.......and probably never will......they were still open for 2 more hours just no more guests on the ship for the day......

Oh well I have been on big Mamie I guess that will have to do it for my battlewagon trips unless Iowa ever gets her home in the bay area set in stone...

if you ever get a chance to see Midway in San Diego please go!

Edit:

been on
USS Massachusetts fall river Mass

USS Hornet Alameda
USS Midway San Diego

USS Joe P kennedy JR fall river Mass
USS Cassin Young Boston Navy yard

USS Contitution Boston Navy yard

USS Lion Fish fall river Mass


and either a Aussie or Kiwi frigate in Seattle back in the early 80s'
 
Hmm been on the following:

USS Yorktown Charleston
USS Midway San Diego

USS Alabama Mobile
USS Missouri Pearl Harbor


USS Laffey DD-724 Charleston
USS Kidd Baton Rouge

USS Clamagore SS-343 Charleston
USS Drum Mobile
USS Pampanito San Francisco
U-505 Chicago

USCGC Ingham WHEC-35 Charleston

Have got on my list to see N.Carolina and Texas (summer coming... forget Houston any time soon)

Would like to see Intrepid, Massachusetts,Wisconsin,New Jersey and Old Ironsides.

Still at the top of my list though was the Arizona memorial.
 
The flight deck of the Yorktown is almost completely covered by metal now. There is only a few feet of teak showing, and it is in bad shape.

NC
 
If you transit through Philly and have a few hours, I recommend dropping by Penn's Landing. There's a maritime museum that's quite nice, and has the ex-USS Olympia, Adm Dewey's flagship at Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. The outside was closed when I visited a year-and-a-half ago, but the interior is accessible and in fairly decent shape considering how old she is. It was very interesting to see how pre-WWI ships were arranged. Lot's of wood, and relatively plush furnishings, especially for the officers. Ship designs got a whole lot more business-like after that.
 
Museum ships I've been on...

USS North Carolina Wilmington
U505 Chicago
USS Alabama Mobile
USS Drum Mobile
HMS Victory
HMS Warrior

I've always wanted to go see USS Texas and USS Olympia.

As for the USS Lexington, I'm torn about seeing her again as a museum ship. I was a crew member on her in the mid 70s and while a visit would be nice, from what I hear about her upkeep as a museum, I'm not sure I want to. I last visited her in 1985 on official business for the Navy.
 
Any of you warship fans who make it to Japan on should take a side-trip to Yokosuka and visit the battleship Mikasa, Admiral Togo's flagship at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.
http://www.midwaysailor.com/mikasa/
It's an impressive ship. A few years newer than USS Olympia but basically from the same dreadnaught era.
 
As for battleship sites, I’ve been to the Alabama, Texas, and North Carolina. The Texas is notable for the access you have to the ship, in particular the engineering spaces. Awesome! The Texas is designated as a National Historic Engineering Landmark for containing the largest surviving triple expansion reciprocating steam engines. The Texas had two screws, and two engine systems, and much of those spaces are accessible.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:eek:ffice" /><o:p></o:p>
The North Carolina is notable for the access to all of turret 2’s rotating structure, all the way down to the bottom of the ship, where the powder bags were taken from the magazines and sent up to the “gun house”. They cut a “doorway” through the 16 inch armored barbette to provide access to us civilians, because normal access to these spaces is through a hatch in the turret and down vertical ladders all the way to the bottom. Not too safe for the little “crumb crunchers”! I didn’t realize that all the ship’s 16-inch “boollets” are stored inside the barbette for each turret. I guess I thought they were in the magazines, but that’s just for the powder bags. It’s just fascinating as heck to wander through those spaces.
 
I was a kid when I visited the NC, but I seem to remember on the Alabama the main engine room was open for visitors. (as an engineroom type, those spaces always get my interest)
 
If I ever do go, I've gotta go check out the Foward Emergency Diesel room. That engine was my baby when I was on the Lex. A V-16 GM 2 stroke diesel with 278ci per cylinder pulling one big ol' generator. I bet if there's HP air still to it I could still start 'er up.
 
USS Texas
USS Orleck
USS Kidd
USS Stewart
USS North Carolina
USS Alabama
USS Drum (submarine)
USS Cavalla (submarine)

I visited the North Carolina,Stewart and Cavalla when I was too young to remember.

I got to spend the night on the Texas with Boy Scouts.We got to play on the guns and see places that weren't open to the general public. We slept on the racks, and were woken up at dawn to run up the Flag and the Jack. I think that was the coolest part, raising the flags at sunrise.:unitedstates:

I have family in Baton Rouge and Mobile so I've been to those a billion times. The accompanying museum with the Alabama has a lot of great aircraft

The Orleck was in severe disrepair but had an interesting story. It was a Navy ship that was sold to Turkey, then repatriated after it was retired. They brought it back to Orange, Texas (totally stripped) where it was not welcomed. I think it's in limbo right now but their website says restoration is in progress.
 
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