Driving to Corpus Christi we decided to make a stop for some sightseeing. The USS Lexington, CV-16, is a World War II-vintage Essex Class aircraft carrier that’s been turned into a museum. The people working there are a lot of vets or people just darn proud to be a U.S citizen. The Lexington is over 900 feet long, has more telephones than a city of 5,000, the flight deck is equal to more than two acres of land on which you could grow a crop of 100 bushels of corn, and you could play three football games or 14 basketball games at the same time on the flight deck, it can also hold 1000 cars. It also carried enough gasoline to drive your car around the world 132 times, and was the first carrier to establish a seagoing high school on Sept 21, 1967. No surprise that it also houses a chapel, hospital, dentist, and barber as well given the number of people on board and for the length of time they would be at sea. Of course there was also a fair sized mess hall.
But let’s start this tour with a tour of our own, getting to a place we could find parking. Barb had called ahead and we were assured that we could park our “40foot” (really we are 29) motorhome there. Oh Yes she said. The aquarium was right next door and there was plenty of parking she said. The directions to the parking were clear she said. So off we went……….
The drive ended with a lot of construction and detours, which we didn’t take. We were driving down industrial back roads following Waze. We get to the aquarium and the parking lot was empty, excellent!! HMM not so, the entrance was VERY narrow and would have required a lot of maneuvering to really get into the lot, so we were “partially in” with me outside trying to figure out how the hell we were going to accomplish this. There were also, of course, other cars trying to get by, get in, get out…….a bit of a shit show really.
But alas, along comes two gentlemen in a golf cart. They worked for the aquarium and turned out to be a blessing, after I batted my lashes and told our tale of woe of course. The gave me instructions of how to get to the much larger parking lot, and again, batting my lashes and sounding very confused and somewhat sad at the state we were in, asked if they could escort us. Well OF COURSE they could!! Lovely! They got the crowd of cars behind us out of the way, Barb backed out of the “spot” we were in, in a very smooth and professional move, and we were OFF following our knights in shining armour. The other larger parking lot was totally empty and they said we could park there today due to the fact the aquarium was closed. (Again, the lady on the phone with Barb ASSURED us that parking would not be an issue at all and people park there all the time….ya right) So Barb chose a spot and we hopped out to start our tour.
At the front entrance we were met by our first volunteer who had tried to enlist 3 times. The first time, denied due to being married, the second time denied due to having a child, the third time due to having two children. Admittedly he said the recruiters did him a favour having seen all his buddies come home from the war. His role now was shining all the brass on the ship and driving the little train that took visitors up the ramp to the Lexington to start the tour. He was also kind enough to take our photo.
Once inside there are 5 tours. The lower decks, the flight deck, the hanger deck, the gallery deck and the Foc’sle Tour. There was also a museum and there was also a great movie about the ship and Pearl Harbour. We started with the lower decks. I was very interested in the engineering rooms as that is where my sister worked in the navy on the HMCS Provider. She was a marine engineer or more commonly known as a stoker. The name comes from having to stoke the fire with coal in the old days. HMCS Provider was a ship that ran on steam so they had a boiler, similar to what we saw on our tour. The Provider also made its own water, which the Lexington also did. The story I liked best from Joy is during the mid watch (midnight to 4am), they would sometimes make dinner on the super heated steam valves. The favourite…….mac and cheese!! Another cool note, Joy was one of the first women on any Canadian ship and sailed from 1989 to 1992 being able to support the efforts of the Gulf War as well as seeing a lot of the world. Can you tell I’m a proud sister??
There were a lot of other really cool places on the ship as mentioned in the first paragraph and here are some photos.
The flight deck is really impressive. It is large and looks as it does in movies like Top Gun. The movie we watched while on board the USS Lexington showed the technology of how these planes get off the carrier in such a short distance with an immense force of steam. Quite incredible!
Couple of other interesting places on the flight deck. The gunnery “room”, not sure what else to call it. It housed two large guns and in this small space 11 men ran the equipment. It was extremely dangerous and they all had to wear fireproof outfits just in case. The other was the bridge, again a small room that steered the ship. It also had a cool voice tube which was a device used to communicate between two critical spaces, such as the engine room and the bridge. These were usually made from brass and could be as long as 300 feet. They were installed with a signal device like a whistle, so the caller could get the attention of the recipient. Despite modern technology, voice tubes are still used today all over the world.
Some other sundry things. An escalator, I’m thinking it probably wasn’t on the ship when it was in service? It sure looked permanent though. What a good landing was compared to a great landing. The movie Peal Harbor filmed on the Lexington. There are license plates that showed if you were a survivor of Pearl Harbor. Another tidbit, as we all know how important tying a knot is in the Navy or for any boat for that matter. The Inca’s only “written” language was a system of knots tied into necklace-like “documents” called quipus, or “talking knots.” Some scholars think quipus recorded only numbers, but others believe that they also told stories and encoded historical events. Cool right?!
Well that was our tour. Getting out of the parking lot and on our merry way was WAY smoother than getting in. Thank God
Great story, Lor. And thanks for the shout out!