‘Ghost ship’ the Vandenberg goes down in history as new reef

better than rusting in some dry dock

Not a dry dock.

the article says that. I just mean for derelict ships in general :shrug:

I would love to be able to walk around a ship that fought in WWII. So cool!

www.battleshipnewjersey.org


There is a museum in Camden that is associated with this ship, an old Iowa-class WWII battleship,BB62, still traveling various ports in the US. You can tour the ship.



mark

Might not be too many in Indiana though

Yet! :-)

preserving them on land.

I worked on a project a few months ago to do bank protection along the Sacramento River. The project found the remains of the Clarksburg Ferry, which sank in 1928. Had the ferry been on land, it probably would not have survived. :(

:thumbsup:

But I still find it kind of sad. ;(

I'm sure there were lots of teary eyes when she "gave up the ghost", considering that there were men who sailed with her, and the Air Force had veterans there who served with General Vandenberg in attendance when she was scuttled.

I found out months after the fact that my ship, the USS America (CV-66) had been sunk in a weapons test. Such a strange feeling I can't describe it. She rocked me to sleep every night/morning for one year, five months, and 18 days. To think that she's now one of the largest things in Davey Jones' Locker was eerie to say the least.

I watched the video of the Vandenberg and was struck by how fast she went under once a certain point was reached. As a Sailor, I can only imagine what all my brother Sailors, no matter whose country their ships belonged to, must have felt knowing that the ship was going to disappear out from under them in a matter of seconds. Such a false sense of security, especially on the truly large ships.

Again I ask though, were the words written on her starboard bow at 1:25 in the video? They sure weren't written in English.

It's also amazing to me that a ship nearly two football fields long can displace only 17,250 tons. I guess that was her displacement after all her running gear was removed.

As a reef, she'll live forever. I hope the good Sailors who were sad to see her go beneath the waves can wrap their minds around that.

If you click more than once on the second pic down on the left, it gets quite large and you can see it much closer...

http://www.bigshipwrecks.com/history/news/mediakit.html

Ah Ha! It appears that this ship appeared in the 1999 Sci-Fi film "Virus," with Donald Sutherland and Jamie Lee Curtis, in which an American crew boards an abandoned Russian research vessel containing an alien life form. That would explain the Russian name. (I can't read the words, but recognized the letters...) The OP may know more. :hi:

The ship used for this movie's setting was the ex-USAFS Hoyt S. Vandenberg. At the time of filming the ship had been decommissioned since the mid-80's and mothballed in the James River Reserve Fleet, Virginia. She still has the Russian name on her from the movie. She is also planned to be sunk as an artificial reef near Key West in early '08.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120458/trivia

Too bad that they didn't repaint this before she was sent to the deep. It's bound to confuse future divers and researchers, especially if they don't have DU... ;)

And I agree with your sentiments about this ship and yours. This is certainly more useful and eco-friendly than scrapping such a historic ship which was home for so many. But I still find it rather sad, so this must be much sadder for those who sailed on her. ;(

We have many mothballed ships that could be used for the same purpose. Their upkeep isn't cost-effective considering that they could be used to foster artificial reefs.

Strange thing... When I was at sea with the America, my fellow Sailors and I wanted nothing more than to be home. When we were home, we spent our spare time while on duty talking about what we did/experienced at sea.

I mentioned that she (The America) rocked me to sleep every night/morning... I was lucky enough to have a rack (bunk) that was situated fore and aft. Some guys had racks that were situated port and starboard. I rocked back and forth from side to side, they tilted head to foot. I slept like a baby, they woke up pissed off.

It's been twenty years since I last walked off of the ship and kissed the ground upon returning to Norfolk, and I can remember most every day I was at sea.

Since they were sinking it, anyway. But WWII service sure has a whole lot more significance than appearing in some forgettable movie... :-(

And I understand your experience a little. My Dad was in the Navy, was drafted well after the war was over, served on the USS Ranger in the late '40s or early '50s. There's a lot more I wish I'd asked him. *sigh* But I do know that he wasn't thrilled about it, once told me that if he could stand the Navy, I certainly could stand boarding school... ;)

But he also had wonderful stories, which he loved to tell, about his experiences, like how difficult it was for the planes to land and how they tried to keep them from going over the side or the time that it was so rough during a storm that he had to lash himself to a table. He was the radio operator... :-)

Sounds like you were very fortunate with your bunk and your entire experience. I've slept on a boat many times and it sure does rock you to sleep. And when you've done that for awhile, you still feel as if you're still rocking, even on land... My question is that if the port-starboard guys woke up in such a bad mood, why didn't they have everyone sleep fore and aft? It sounds like that would have made it a more copacetic experience for everyone on board... :shrug:

And where did you serve? Wish I'd asked my Dad more about that, too... :-(

and the one I served in in the 80's. I would hazard a guess though, that boarding school would have been preferrable to a life where it was hot, the work was HARD, the taskmasters were UNFORGIVING, and the food was almost unpalatable. Compared to that, I "skated" (a naval term that in my day described the difference between hard work and easy).

Your Pop may have been right, but for the wrong reasons. Boarding school, in my limited way of thinking, is nothing more than being sent away to afford parents the convenience of not having to raise their own chilren. I'm sorry for saying that, but that's my perspective on your experience. I know people who've been in the same boat (pun intended) and they fall on both sides of the spectrum in the context of how they felt about the whole notion of boarding school.

In my experience, the good times your Pop described were derived from the comraderie that he felt for his fellow Sailors. It's almost like being in Little League Baseball. You learn to work as a team, and it's an experience that you never forget. On the flight deck of an aircraft carrier though, it's not like you're working on perfecting the double-play, but learning that your life depends on the attention to detail that your shipmates hold themselves to, and holding yourself to the same standard. I've stood on the horizontal stabilizer (tail) of an airplane whose tail was over the water, in high seas and heavy rain. I wasn't alone though; there were other flight deck personnel watching and assisting me in my task. Those things make a lasting impression. At the end of the day, or night depending on which shift you work, you go to dinner with your co-workers, you shower with them close enough to hold conversations, and you sleep with them. Picture a living room in a moderately sized house. The Navy can put 40 guys in bunks in a space like that.

The sleeping arrangements as far as fore and aft vs port and starboard go are determined by the shape of the berthing compartment. A military ship has many strange and convoluted passageways and elevators. It's simply not possible to orient each and every bunk in the same manner. I was lucky; my rank and time in service allowed me to have my choice of sleeping arrangements, and I was lucky enough to have a friend who advised me on where I should toss my seabag when we boarded the ship.

My first duty station was with an Anti-Submarine squadron with the designation VS-32. My squadron was based at NAS Cecil Field, in Jacksonville, FL. That was my "Sea Duty". The normal way of doing things while I was in Naval Aviation was that your first enlistment was at sea, with a ship-based squadron. My last duty station was at NAS Whidbey Island, which was located on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound in Washington State. It was a training squadron, wherein "nugget" pilots and bombardier/navigators learned to be shipboard aircrews.

I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world. I served during what was for the most part "peacetime", but earned a Naval Expeditionary Medal (the medal they give for wartime service) for things my ship went through, such as the Libyan mining of the Red Sea in the 80's

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to remember, and share some of my experiences. I can say this to you: Your Father's service to his country far outstretches mine due to the fact that he served "when ships were made of wood and men were made of steel". I know that's not REALLY the case, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard that from "Old Salts". It's kind of like being told by your uncle that he walked to school "uphill in the snow to get to school, and after school he walked uphill in the snow to get home."

Have a Wonderful Day Rhi.

I love hearing other DUers' stories, many so different from mine. Though your description, the work was HARD, the taskmasters were UNFORGIVING, and the food was almost unpalatable, does remind me a lot of my boarding school, LOL. The only difference was that it was in Western Mass., and almost always cold... x(

It sounds as if you enjoyed it, nonetheless, probably due a lot to the camaraderie, as you said. There's a lot to be said for that, sharing both good times and bad with colleagues. I've experienced that through much of my life and I'm sure that my Dad found the same thing in the Navy. He was always a good swimmer and one of his duties that he talked about was getting new guys through a test where they had to jump into the water from a pretty tall height, think he had pix. Some of the guys froze, just couldn't do it, so he said he'd just grab them and jump in with them, so they'd pass. Despite his complaints about the Navy, I always got the impression that he was proud of having done a good job, something that he did throughout his life. :-)

I imagine his major complaint was that it interrupted his education and he must have had to work pretty hard since I know that he graduated on time. I've always wondered, and was stupid not to have asked... He lost his father suddenly when he was only 12, tragic for any kid, but my grandmother was determined that all four of her kids would make it through college and they all did. So my Dad also had to work, was a musician, had his own band since he was 14... but his studies, and his day job, were engineering.:D

You certainly traveled to some desirable places. I have no idea where my Dad went. All I know is that he developed some kind of very painful foot fungus, in the '80s, I think, which the doctor said had remained dormant since he'd been in the Navy some 30+ years before! Yikes! So I'm assuming he'd been in some tropical climate at some point, but I never thought to ask. *sigh* The stories were always about the planes, the pilots and the bad weather... There must be papers somewhere... :shrug:

I'm also somewhat familiar with boats, since my BF has a cabin cruiser and I used to spend a lot of time there. Though I grew up very near both Lake George and Lake Champlain, I've never been much of a water person, LOL, but I tried hard to learn about it, be supportive and helpful, since he loves it so much. And so I understand what you mean about sleeping on the water and about how things are arranged. I've always been impressed about the clever way that everything is arranged so efficiently in such a small space. :D

As for my boarding school, that was really my grandmother's idea, too. She was determined that we all get the best education possible and, because she was closest to my Dad and because I was the first born, she had a profound influence on my life. And, of course, I was a teenager, certainly not bad by today's standards, but still a teenager, LOL, so my Dad got totally on board with it and he probably kept even closer track of me when I was away than when I'd lived at home. Those were rough years, but we both lived through them. I wasn't so much homesick, since that duo had also sent me to camp, summers, at an even younger age. I just didn't much like it there. I ended up liking camp since I made my best childhood friends there, still keep track of most of them... :D

You certainly have much to be proud of, and that you enjoyed it, too. Thanks so much for telling me about it. I'm the unusual female who can sit through a documentary on aircraft carriers or WWII and not be just interested, but totally caught up in it... ;)

You have a great day, too... Mine's going to be a long one... And thank you for your service. :patriot:

Rhi :hi:

At Colonna Shipyards when they were dismantling the dish antennas and radomes.

when the base was decommissioned they tore down the fuel tanks (diesel) and sunk them as well to create a reef.

Now the island is a pricey bungalow community with a FINE dining restaurant. Really good. The owner's dog has its own menu on the restaurant computers. Supposedly Oprah offered to buy the island a few years ago and the owner said "No thanks" he turned down OPRAH MONEY!

I learned all this when my wife and I went down to Key West for a fantastic week about 7 years ago. We ate at the restaurant on the island-really really good.

Sport diving is typically at a maximum of 120ft, with "bottom time" severely shortened by deeper dives. At 140ft, any time at all would put the typical sport diver into a decompression ascent. Unless the divemaster had air tanks and hoses set at the decompression stops, the divers get into some dangerous situations. The average sport diver isn't adequately trained in decompression diving and the typical dive operator isn't equipped to meet decompression requirements.

That said, 140ft would be the depth of the bottom. The superstructure and "interesting" parts of the ship would be between 90ft and 120 ft. Wreck dives are pretty fascinating. All manner of marine life takes up "residence" in a wreck, including some of the biggest "bugs" (lobster) I've ever seen, even in pictures.

One of the primary reasons they choose such a depth is to preclude it being a hazard to navigation. The topmost part of the ship's superstructure must be a comfortable depth below the deepest-draft vessel.

While I've had my share of WONDERFUL 'deep' dives (e.g. wall dives and wreck dives), most sport divers like to keep around 60ft ... both because of the colors and because of bouyancy control, as well as bottom time.