Hunley

We visited the Hunley it is the first successful combat submarine launched in the USA.  It was used during the Civil War by the South to try break up the blockade in the Charleston harbor.
 Interesting facts-

• the first mission went bad when the captain dived before the hatches were closed.  Five of the nine crew members died.  General Beauregard ordered the sub raised.
  
• Amazingly - a second crew was found who trained before heading out to sea.  They also all perished, the Hunley's name sake was Captaining this mission.  When divers were able to dive to the site of the sunk Hunley, storms had postponed a quick rescue.  They were amazed to discover the Hunley nose down in the mud of the harbor.
• before the Hunley had been recovered the second time a crew had volunteered to take her out again.
• the third and final mission of the Hunley was successful and mysterious.  The sub was supposed to attach a mine to the bottom of the USS Housatonic a Union ship guarding the entrance to the harbor.  The mine was attached to a long metal spar.  The plan was to drive the spar into the hull of the Husatonic then back away reeling out a rope that would trigger the blast when they were safely away.  Alas that was not to be the Spar hit the Housatonic in the munitions storage area of the ship and it blew the mine immediately.  Blowing the Housatonic to the bottom of the harbor.  The shore crew were excited and some report seeing the blue light that signaled a successful mission but as they waited it became apparent that the sub was not returning to port.
• In 1995 Clive Cussler and his crew found the Hunley it had drifted past the Housatonic.  It is thought that the blast knocked the crew unconscious and they drowned with know one to man the air pump.
• the Hunley was powered by eight men turning a crank that turned the propeller.  The Captain sat in the front of the sub and worked the dive planes and ballast tanks
• the sub sits in a tank of clean water with electric current running through it to help remove the years of sea life from it.
• in its current condition if it was taken out of the water it would rust to dust in about two weeks.
  
• it is hoped that in five years the sub will be cleaned up enough to have the exterior sprayed so that it can be shown in a climate controlled room with out the water.

kids propelling a replica sub

actual size of the original Hunley hatch, those guys must have been skinny

What the Hunley looks like now surrounded by water. This picture is borrowed from the web, as you are not allowed to take pictures for the sub right now.

model of the Hunley

Pioneer Model

Pioneer Model

USS Laffey and USS Clamagore

Patriots Point is also home to the USS Laffey a destroyer.  It is open for tours and is quiet amazing to see.  The Laffey was commissioned in 1944.  While operating off Okinawa on April 16, 1945, Laffey was assailed by a massive air strike of 22 Japanese bombers and kamikazes.  Five kamikazes and three bombs struck her killing 32 and wounding 71 of her 336 man crew.  They were able to shoot down 11 attackers and keep the Laffey afloat.  Repairs were made and she was decommissioned in 1975.

can I call her a pretty ship?

USS Laffey

wow just to track stuff

captains tender boat

the bridge

total of kills, not to sure about the islands

more search stuff, wonder if this would help Samuel find his missing pencil?

Replica Vietnam Naval Support Base

Patriots Point has a true to scale exhibit of a Naval support base used during the Vietnam War.  "Visitors are taken back to South Vietnam (1965 - 1970) when the U.S. Navy supported the ground troops and counterinsurgency operations throughout a vast network of waterways.  The primary mission of the "Brown Water Navy" was to block the movement of insurgents and their supplies into South Vietnam."

mess hall

ammunition storage

helicopter

watch tower

gun on the helicopter

latrines

first aid  building and Samuel driving the girls.

USS Yorktown

USS Yorktown (CV-10) is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum.  "The Yorktown is the tenth aircraft carrier to serve in the United States Navy.  She was named for the Yorktown (CV-5), lost while repelling the Japanese Fleet at the Battle of Midway in 1942.  Built in Newport News, Virgina, as an Essex-class carrier, the new Yorktown was commissioned on April 15, 1943.  Yorktown played a significant role in the Pacific offensive which began in late 1943 and ended with the defeat of Japan in 1945.  Yorktown received the Presidential Unit Citation and earned 11 battle stars for World War II service.  Yorktown was featured in the 1944 Academy Award-winning documentary motion picture The Fighting Lady and in the 1970 motion picture Tora! Tora! Tora!

Yorktown displaced 27,100 tons during World War II, and carried a crew of 380 officers, 3,088 enlisted men and an air group of 90 planes.  In the 1950's, she was modified with the addition of an angled deck for jets, which increased her displacement it 41,000, and the she was converted to an antisubmarine carrier.  In this capacity, she served in the Vietnam War in the 1960's and in 1968 recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts, the first men to reach the vicinity of the moon.  Decommissioned two years later, the Yorktown was towed from New Jersey to Charleston and dedicated as a museum in 1975." as per flier.

It is really neat to walk through the living and working areas, the fire room and engine room, the flight deck and bridge, and the wardroom and brig.

USS Yorktown

massive bow

USS Yorktown

latrines

bunks

dentist

Samuel in the dentist chair

recipe for 10,000 cookies

supplies for 10,000 cookies

 The USS Yorktown also has a great collection of historic military aircraft.

A-7E Corsair II

SH-3G Sea King

F/A -18A Hornet

EA-3B Skywarrior

F-4J Phantom II

Fort Sumter

For anyone who likes to study the Civil War, Fort Sumter is a place not to miss.  On April 11, 1861 the newly seceded South demanded that Union troops vacate Fort Sumter.  The North refused and on the 12th of April 1861 South Carolina Confederate troops at nearby Fort Johnson fired on Fort Sumter.  It was the first shot of the Civil War.  The bombardment lasted two days before the Union surrendered the fort.  The Union army was able to board a ship for New York.  Miraculously, no one on either side had been killed.

The tour of Fort Sumter requires a boat trip.  The fort was built on a reinforced sand bar in the Charleston harbor.  Work began on the fort after the War of 1812.  It was still unfinished during the occupation of Union forces in 1861. " The fort is a five-sided brick structure, 170 to 190 feet (52 to 58 m) long, with walls five-feet thick (1.5 m), standing 50 feet (15.2 m) over the low tide mark. It was designed to house 650 men and 135 guns in three tiers of gun emplacements, although it was never filled near its full capacity."

Fort Sumter

cannon portals in the wall

a shell stuck in the wall

Left - 33 star flag of the Union garrison 1861, Middle Left - second official Confederacy flag 1863, Middle - today's USA flag, Middle Right - South Carolina's Palmetto flag, Right - first official Confederate flag 1861, Back - 35 star Union flag raised over Sumter upon recapture on Feb 1865.

Samuel with a mountain howitzer cannon

barracks and port holes for cannons

barracks area

defensive forts of Charleston

replica of the fort before the walls were reduced due to bombardment

The Confederate Army held the fort from 1863 - 1865.  Withstanding the April 1863 bombardment from nine armored vessels (ironclads), which only scarred and battered Sumter's walls.  The accurate fire from the fort disabled five Union ships.  In the Keokuk sank the next morning.

A second attack was planned an combined a land and sea operation.  Morris Island was taken and Union guns were turned on Fort Sumter in earnest on August 17, 1863, almost 1,000 shells were fired the first day.  Within a week the forts walls were reduced rubble.  the garrison refused to surrender and continued to repair and strengthen the defenses.  Confederate guns at Fort Moultrei  and other points took up defense of Sumter.

On September 9th another Union assault fell short, this time the attackers lost five boats and 124 men trying to take the fort.  The bombardment continued until the end of December.  By then Sumter's cannon were severly damaged and the defenders could only respond with muskets.

In the summer of 1864 one last attempt was made to take Sumter.  A sustained two month Union bombardment, failed to dislodge the 300 man Confederate garrison.  The Union troops were ordered North to aid Gen. Grant in his overland campaign against Richmond.  Fort Sumter had withstood 20 months of seige.  It no longer resembled a fort but it was stronger than ever.  Big union guns had hurled 7 million pounds of metal at it yet the Confederate losses had been only 52 killed and 267 wounded.

Fort Sumter was finally delivered into the Union hands when Gen. Shermans troops advanced north from Savannah.  On Feb 17, 1865  Confederate forces evacuated the fort.  And on April 14 with Charleston in Union hands the US flag was once again raised over Sumter's battered ramparts.