The Navy Base is where the Navy Ships are docked and minor repairs are completed, the Naval Shipyard is where major repairs are done.
Located in Portsmouth, Virginia The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is one of the largest shipyards in the world specializing in repairing, overhauling and modernizing ships and submarines. The shipyard is the oldest and largest industrial facility that belongs to the U.S. Navy, and it's also the most multifaceted.
We arrived at the Maritime Center at about 9:00 am for a 10:00 am departure on the Miss Hampton II. The Maritime Center is located on the southern tip of the Chesapeake Bay on the Hampton River.
As we cruised up the bay the first ship we came upon was the Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. (You can get a larger view of the photos by clicking on them.)
This is a Navy photo of the USS Abraham Lincoln underway, with support aircraft overhead in the South China Sea, May 8, 2006.
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USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is the fifth Nimitz-class super carrier in the United States Navy. It is the second Navy ship named after former President Abraham Lincoln. Her home port is Norfolk Virginia, and she is a member of the United States Atlantic Fleet. She is currently the flagship of Carrier Strike Group Nine host to Carrier Air Wing Two.
Her contract was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding on Dec. 27, 1982; her keel was laid Nov. 3, 1984 at Newport News, Virginia. The ship was launched on Feb. 13, 1988 and commissioned on Nov. 11, 1989. She cost $4.726 billion in 2010 dollars.
As we were cruising up the harbor in the distance we could see another ship, the USS Wasp, entering port. Here is a tug opening the fence so the USS Wasp can dock. The ships are well protected in the Navy Base but the fence is there to keep the Riff-Raff out.
The next ship we cruised by was the USS Bataan (LHD-5) a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship. She is named to honor the defense of the Bataan Peninsula on the Western side of Manila Bay in the Philippines during the early days of World War II.
Although she looks like an Aircraft Carrier she is much smaller, this class of amphibious assault ships carries Marines, landing craft, and vertical lift aircraft.
The Bataan was one of many vessels in the Middle East region at the beginning of the Iraq War on or about March 20, 2003. After delivering her attack and transport helicopters, troops, and vehicles she was employed as a "Harrier Carrier" with primary duties supporting two Marine AV-8B Harrier II Squadrons. She has made two deployments to the region since the invasion. For her third deployment, she joined the Fifth Fleet in the Gulf region, transiting the Suez Canal into the Red Sea on Jan. 30, 2007.
Bataan provided relief to the Victims of Hurricane Katrina. She was positioned near New Orleans prior to Katrina making landfall, and began relief operations on August 30th.
Here is a destroyer moored to the other side of the dock from the Bataan.
A Navy Police boat patrols the harbor.
A Navy plane is coming in for a landing.
Next we passed a Navy Stealth Ship on one side of the dock with destroyers on the other side. The larger ship is the USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19) the third San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock and the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.
The ship is designed to deliver a fully equipped battalion of up to 800 Marines. The ship will transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies, by embarked air cushion or conventional landing craft of Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical take off and landing aircraft.
The ship was christened in January 2005 and commissioned in 2007, marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park.
Notice to shape of the stacks on the ship. This is to deflect radar signals up and away, which gives the ship a much smaller signature. That is why they refer to this ship as stealth.
The destroyer is the USS Russell (DDG-59) which is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. She is named for Rear Admiral John Henry Russell and his son, Commandant of the Marine Corps John Henry Russell, Jr..
We continued up the harbor passing many more ships including this Submarine. I was not able to determine the name of this sub because the Navy does not display the names and numbers of the Submarines.
Here are some of the many cranes in the Naval Shipyard.
The next ship we passed is the USS Stout (DDG-55).
She is the sixth Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. Built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, she was commissioned on August 13, 1994 and is currently home ported in Norfolk.
In April 2008, the ship comprehensively failed its Board of Inspection and Survey examination and was declared "unfit for sustained combat operations." The ship has since passed 13 of 13 rigorous unit level training inspections. Stout deployed in March 2009 on routine security operations in the Sixth Fleet.
As we were heading back down the bay we passed the USS Wasp, which the fence was being opened for. You can see the tug boats all around her pushing her along until she gets docked. The Navy hires commercial tug boats to aid the ships.
Here is a Navy photo of the back of the USS Wasp.
The USS Wasp (LHD 1) is a U.S. Navy multipurpose amphibious assault ship. She is the tenth USN vessel to bear the name and was the flagship of the Second Fleet and the lead ship of her class. USS Wasp and her sister ships are the first specifically designed to accommodate new Landing Craft, Air Cushion for fast troop movement over the beach. She carries Harrier II Vertical/Short Take Off and Landing jets which provide close air support for the Marine assault force. She also accommodates the full range of Navy and Marine Corps helicopters, conventional landing craft, and amphibious vehicles.
Here is a Navy photo of an Air Cushion Landing Craft.
Our next stop along the way was at Fort Wool. We have never heard of Fort Wool before but we got to stop and tour the island.
Fort Wool (originally named Fort Calhoun) was the companion to Fort Monroe (Monroe is on the northern side of the channel) in protecting Hampton Roads from seafaring threats. (Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk-Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia.)
Originally conceived in 1817, Fort Calhoun was built on a 15 acre artificial island southeast of old Point Comfort in Hampton, VA. Construction and repairs continued for decades, because the foundation was unstable. The earth beneath the island is soft and the island is still slowly sinking today. We were able to see the cracks in all the concrete and the lumpy fields as it sinks unevenly.
Construction continued through the 1830s, when Andrew Jackson came to escape from the heat of Washington, D.C.
President Andrew Jackson first set foot on this island in July 1829. He was immediately taken with its natural attributes and adopted the site as his summer White House. Devastated by the death of his beloved wife Rachel, Jackson was frail and in poor health. The search for solitude and respite brought him here to the island's isolation.
Atop the casemates, Jackson had a modest hut built in which he read, reviewed correspondence, and addressed political issues. There he scanned the open sea with his telescope.
"For the benefit of my health, by the sea bathing, and to get free from that continued bustle with which I am always surrounded in Washington, and elsewhere, ... I shut myself up on these rocks" - Andrew Jackson, 1833.
As a young second lieutenant and engineer in the U.S. Army, Robert E. Lee was stationed here from 1831 to 1834. Lee was and assistant to Captain Andrew Talcott and played a major role in the final construction of both the fort on the island in 1834, and its larger opposite on the mainland, Fort Monroe.
The Fort played a crucial role for the Union forces during the American Civil War. In addition to aiding in controlling entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads, prisoners were confined in the fort. After the Civil War it was named Fort Wool for the Union Major General John Ellis Wool, who captured Norfolk in the early part of the war.
The Fort was modernized in the early 20th century, and served as the part of the harbor's defense during World War I and World War II. During World War I submarine nets were stretched across the harbor from this point.
The outmoded fort was finally abandoned by the military in 1953. After being decommissioned, it was given to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1967 and in 1970, the City of Hampton developed it into a park.
It was a great day on the harbor, the weather was clear and warm and we really enjoyed our tour. Our tour guide was very informative and we learned a lot about the Naval Base and Shipyard along with the surrounding area. It is so much better to experience history up close and personal than reading it in a book.
The last few days have been warm, clear, and nice even though it was a bit hot. That has now changed with a vengeance. Today it is cold, rainy, and it is only 56 degrees at 3:00 pm. It is a good day to stay inside and work on this blog.
While I relaxed and typed away on this blog my little "Honey Muffin" labored away on the laundry. She doesn't complain but to me laundry is a pain in the @##.
There is so much history in the area it is a great place to spend time. We are here for 3 weeks and will keep busy taking it all in.
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