Friday, October 23, 2009

On the Yorktown at Patriot's Point, South Carolina

Patriot's Point is a fantastic museum featuring the USS Yorktown, a WWII aircraft carrier. This ship is BIG! It is 888' long and housed over 3,000 crew. We were able to tour the entire ship and examine the many, many wonderful exhibits.


Orinda was impressed with the ship -- as we got closer to it, the ship seemed to get much bigger!


In addition to the Yorktown, we could also tour the USS Clamagore, a WWII submarine. Orinda was not keen on touring this one, so Rick ventured through the sub himself.

The sub was amazing. It was both large and small at the same time -- it was hard to believe that 80 men lived inside. Here, Rick is looking at one of four 5,400hp Diesels that provide primary power on the sub. I will bet this was a noisy place when those engines were running!


After touring the Clamagore, we boarded the Yorktown and started our tour in the hanger deck. This huge area housed the 90 WWII aircraft and served as a servicing area for everything from airplanes, engines, armament and much more.

One part of the tour that Rick really enjoyed was the engine room spaces. The Yorktown was powered by 4 huge steam turbines with 150,000 hp. This amazing ship was capable of over 33 knots in WWII which is really moving for something almost 900 feet long! The Yorktown is a great place to visit and provides a real insight into the career of a great ship and her crew.

1 comment:

Paul and Mary said...

Rick and Orinda -
We're enjoying your travels, you've been trailing close to us. We were in Charleston last week and loved it. Looks like you are, too!

We're negotiating on a Tour and would love to hear about your experience. Will you email us at rvescapees(at)gmail.com? We look forward to hearing from you.

Save travels!
Paul and Mary