Home Is Where We Park It:  Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale Alabama

Date:  May 18, 2019

Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile Alabama – USS Alabama, Part Two

Well once again I awoke with the words of a song playing over and over again in my mind.  This time it was a simple song which we used to sing in church many years ago.  the words went like this:

This is the day, This is the day, This is the day that the Lord has made,  I will rejoice and be glad in it!

Each day such a precious gift given to us to live to the fullest.  Today was no different.  A beautiful day that made one glad to be alive.  Abundant sunshine.  My friend, my wife, the one I love at my side.  What more could one ask for.  Thank you Lord for this day you’ve given us.

Time for breakfast.  Barbara as always is the gourmet breakfast chef.  Today it was scrambled egg, cheese, and ham on an onion roll.  Add a glass of orange juice and a couple of cups of coffee and breakfast was complete.  Complete, and very, very good.

Breakfast over and time to get going.  Today we’re going to finish our tour of the Battleship Alabama.  We’re going to do all three tours so I hope you have your walking

shoes on and you’re ready to go climbing up and down a whole bunch of ladders.  We’re going to start with the main deck, go up four decks, back down to the main deck, and then down five decks into the belly of the ship.  Lets’s go onboard.

First stop and we’re looking back into the Captain’s Cabin.  This served as more of a ceremonial and entertainment space rather than as actual living quarters.

This is the Captain’s Sea Cabin.  At sea the Captain seldom if ever left the bridge.  Here he was immediately available day and night.  He rarely had more than a few hours of sleep without a call.

  This is an officer’s stateroom.  Unlike the enlisted men who slept in one big area, officers enjoyed private or semi-private rooms.

In contrast this is where the enlisted men berthed.  No privacy at all.   Everyone just crammed into one big area.  Count me out I’ll keep my bed in Graybeard!

This is the Officers Galley.  Officers meals were served at 7 am. 12 noon and 5 pm.  In addition officers could request meals at any time so the galley was always abuzz 24 hours a day.  Furthermore, if an officer wanted a special meal and the supplies were available for it, it would be prepared. 

Officers meals would be served one level above in the Officers Wardroom.  A dumbwaiter ran between the two levels.

 

This is the Galley for the enlisted men.  Here each day hot meals were prepared for 2,500 men.  The cauldrons could contain coffee, stew, potatoes, beans or whatever.  Oh, they got what was prepared no special request allowed.

This is the mess area where the enlisted men ate.  At night the tables were folded up against the wall.  This area extended around the corner and kept going.  By now I was getting the district impression that there was a huge difference between the life of an officer and an enlisted man.

This is the Butcher Shop.  Meat was brought here from the storage locker, prepared and then delivered to either the officers or enlisted galley.

This is the ships soda fountain.

This is the Scullery.  After each meal every piece of mess gear was scalded in live steam and washed with soap and water.  This was a large factor in the excellent health of the crew.

This is the Laundry Room.  It was essential that men going into battle be in clean clothes to prevent infection in case of wounds.

The Barber Shop.

This is the Lucky Bag.  The number of men on the ship made it essential that each member of the crew keep their gear and clothing in their locker.  Articles found lying around lose were put into this room.  Anyone who had their stuff put into this room were subject to hours of extra duty.  Boy, would I be in trouble if this were the case onboard Graybeard!

This is the Battle Bridge.  During an enemy attack the Captain commanded the ship from this location.  Here, he and his crew were protected by 18 inch thick armor plate.

This is the Flag Pilot’s Office.  This was the Admiral’s combat intelligence gathering office.  It contains radar equipment, plotting tables and various forms of communication equipment.

This is The Combat Information Center.  All battle information funneled into this room.  Here it was analyzed and then sent to the Captain, the Flag Pilot, and other ships in the task force.

This is the Damage Control Station.  The Damage Control Officer had his station here.  He was responsible for the water-tightness of the ship and for evaluating and repairing all battle damage.

This is The Central Station. The ship could be controlled from this position.  There are communication facilities to every part of the ship.  This is the Executive Officers Battle Station.

This is Radio Central.  This was the very heart of the ships communication with the outside world.  Here information was transmitted to and from the outside world.  Information received here was transmitted to various officers of the ship where battle plans were drawn up.

This is the Machine Shop.  A ship thousands of miles from home port had to be capable of maintaining itself, and able to repair or make whatever part or piece of its machinery or armament was needed .

This is something I found most interesting.

This is the engine room.  This is one of the spaces that I got lost in.  I finally spotted someone going up a ladder and so got myself out.  Whew, what a relief!

This is one of the ship’s propellers.

A few more odds and ends.

This is a Paravane.  This is a special type of water kite used to prevent the ship from striking a moored mine.  One was towed on each side of the ship.  It would move out to a certain distance and depth.  When it encountered a moored mine, the mine’s cable was severed by a cutter on the paravane, it then floated to the surface where it could be destroyed by gunfire.

Remember we said it was 194 feet to the top?  Unfortunately, you can no longer go all the way up since it is closed for restoration.

So that brings us to the end of our tour.  If you’ve never had a chance to visit the Lucky A put it on your bucket list of things to do.  A tour of this mighty ship brings home the sacrifices so many have made to ensure the freedoms we enjoy – and all too often take for granted.

That brings to an end our day on The Road of Retirement.  We had another delightful day out and about living life our way, traveling along, hand in hand, singing our song.  We have a lot more to share with you which hopefully we’ll be able to get to in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned there’s lots more to come.

Once again thanks for coming along with us, we enjoyed your company.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

 

 

.

Home Is Where We Park It:  Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale Alabama

Date:  May 17, 2019

Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile Alabama – USS Alabama, Part One

I wake up every morning and just give thanks to the good Lord  for this beautiful weather we are having.  Moderate temperatures, a light wind and clear blue skies.  It is just great to be alive.

We have another week to go before we leave and we still have a bunch to do.  Having two weeks, though, allows us to do it at a relaxed pace.  We like it that way.  Especially since once we leave here we will be on the move constantly.  We’ll spend a week in New Orleans but after that it will be a stop here for a few days, then a stop there and so on and so forth until we get to Ohio and ultimately Pennsylvania.  That will be our next extended stop to catch our breath.

Barbara has been looking for a doctor for some time now since she needs her prescriptions refilled.  She was also hoping to find someone who would work with her and refill them when needed no matter what part of the country we are in.  Good news is we have found one.  Provided, she emails him monthly her daily blood pressure and her weight, and that she goes for blood work every three months and has the results sent to him.  Sounds like we have a plan.

Today we’re going back to Battleship Memorial Park

and we’re going to tour the USS Alabama.

Let me confess right up front I could never include all the pictures I took in one, or two, or multiple blogs.  I also, a first for me, at one point just stopped taking pictures.  I would probably still be there if I continued to take a picture of all that was on display.  In addition some pictures I can’t post because of their poor quality.  Some of the displays are behind what is supposed to be clear Plexiglas but over the years it has become so scratched and yellowed its hard to see through it.  That said, put on your walking shoes, limber up your knees and lets go tour what is known as The mighty A or The lucky A – lucky because it is the only WW II ship never damaged by enemy action.

We stopped first st the Visitor Center to get our tickets

and then we went this way

No stairs yet, but the only way to the ship was up, up, up this ramp.  Barbara is leading the charge.

Our tour starts here.

Once inside we discovered that there were three self-guided tours.  Yellow, main deck and above.  Red and Green, down five stories into the heart of the ship.  We both made the yellow tour but Barbara was having some issues with her knees and and back so was unable to make the red and green.  I’ll say this, it must have taken sailors on this ship a while to learn their way around.  Even with the arrows pointing the way I got lost several times.

No time to waste so let’s get going.  We discovered at this display that

• the ship was commissioned August 16, 1942
• it is 680 feet in length
• has a beam of 108 feet
• weighed in under battle conditions at 45,000 tons
• draft was 34 feet
• maximum height 194 feet
• 130,000 horsepower
• maximum speed 32 mph
• carried two fixed wing aircraft
• Armament: 9 16″/45 caliber guns; 20 5″/38 caliber guns; 48 40 mm guns; 52 20 mm guns
• had a crew of 127 officers and 2,205 enlisted men

Battleship Camouflage

During her wartime service the ship saw action on nine separate occasions at nine different locations (look for the gold stars) and her crew is credited with shooting down 22 enemy aircraft.

Let’s take a closer look at the ship’s armament and we’ll begin with her 16″/45 caliber guns.  There are three turrets each with three guns.   Each turret had a crew of 3 officers and 177 enlisted men, some on the lowest level others in the turret.

Each turret sits on top of a huge cylinder of steel called a barbette which extends five decks down and sits on the ships keel.

Here are the front two turrets.  Until you are standing either in front of or under a turret it is hard to imagine just how enormous they are.

 

The rear turret.

Let’s go inside the front turret.  Warning, its tight getting in and once in it’s not easy to move around.  So watch your step and your head!  Once inside I just stood there for several minutes and tried my hardest to imagine how tight it must have been with a full crew, not to mention how hot and loud.

In this picture against the far wall is the open door of an elevator used to bring the 90 pound powder bags up from the lower level.  To the right and folded up is the ramp that is used to load a shell into one of the guns.

In this picture we see an open gun waiting for powder bags and a shell.

Let’s leave the inside of the turret turret and take a look at how the turrets are mounted and protected.  This is the steel cylinder or barbette that the turret is mounted on (take a look again at the earlier picture -6 up – to get a better idea of how it all goes together).

Inside this cylinder at its lowest level all the projectiles or shells and the powder bags are stored, each in its own compartment.  The gun crew fed each up to the turret by elevator or conveyor.

90 Pound powder bags.  The guns on the Alabama are called powder bag guns.  To propel a shell its maximum range of 21 miles required six 90 pound bags.

In this picture, bottom left are the elevators that would lift the powder bags to the turret.

These are the shells that the ship carried.  Each shell weighted 2,700 pounds.  Armour piercing shells were painted black and were used against enemy ships and hardened shore targets such as bunkers.  High capacity shells were painted green and were used against exposed enemy targets.  They were equipped with fuses that would detonate the shell while in the air resulting in shrapnel being sprayed over a wide area.  Each gun could fire a shell every 2 minutes.

The Alabama also carried twenty 5’/38 caliber guns, 5 twin mounts per side.  This is a model of the ship that shows their placement on the starboard side of the ship.

The real thing.  These guns were used against air or surface targets.

 

This is the radar that controlled the fire of the guns.  Each director could control one or all of the guns.

This is the lower handling room for the guns.  Within this compartment all shells and cartridges of powder were securely fastened to the floor, kept dry and ready for action.  When needed they were lifted to the guns above.

The ship also had forty-eight 40 mm guns.  They were most effective against low flying aircraft.  They could fire at the rate of 320 rounds per minute for the four guns.

Finally, the ship carried fifty-two 20 mm guns.  They were only effective at close range, yet on many occasions their trail of tracers scared away an attacking plane.

Barbara is gunning for the enemy!

The Alabama also had two fixed wing aircraft carried on her stern.  They were used for surveillance, gun fire spotting, and rescue missions.  This model shows that they were carried on a catapult from which they were launched.  They were retrieved by the hoist in the middle. 

A picture of a Kingfisher being launched.

Being retrieved.

I believe we’ll call it for now.  We’ll continue our tour again tomorrow.  I’m still limited to hunt and peck typing because of my broken finger so each blog takes a good three times longer, if not more to do a blog.

We’re enjoying our time here on The Road of Retirement.  We’ve been able to get Barbara to the doctors, catch up with our mail, restock the larder and so much more.  Next week we hope to get back to the Naval Air Museum and a few other places that are right around here.  So stay tuned we’re always up to something.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

 

 

 

 

 

Home Is Where We Park It:  Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale Alabama

Date:  May 15, 2019

Stuck in the Middle, and Goofy Signs

Ever wake up with the lyrics of a song running through your head and you just can’t get it to stop?  That’s what happened to me this morning.  Let me share with you the words that played over and over again in my head (still are!)

I’m above the below and below the upper
I’m stuck in the middle where the money gets tight
But i guess I’m doing alright

I’m all, I’m all, I’m alright
It’s a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight
So I guess I’m doing alright
Oh, oh I’m alright
Got a good ole friend here with me tonight
So I guess I’m doing alright

That my friends sort of says it all for where we are at.  It’s a good place to be as far as we’er concerned.  Indeed, you’ll get no complaints from us because we like it where we are.  Could we use more money?  Sure, but how much.  Would we like a newer and bigger rig.  Would be nice.  But how big and how much newer?

We’re above the below and below the upper but we have each other and we’re doing alright.

Today we promised ourselves that we were just going to take it easy.  All that climbing up and down ladders, twisting our way through narrow hatches took a toll on our knees and backs.  You think we might be getting a bit older?  In age maybe but never in heart and spirit!

Tonight, therefore, no real blog but rather a collection of interesting and funny signs I’ve discovered along the way and have been meaning to share with you.  Enjoy.  I wonder which one will be your favorite?

So which one was your favorite?

By the way ever wonder why you’re told to watch where you swim?

That’s it for our time today on The Road of Retirement.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

 

 

Home Is Where We Park It:  Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale Alabama

Date:  May 14, 2019

Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile Alabama

Oh yes another beautiful morning with the promise of another spectacular day.  No time to lay around this morning we had miles to go and places to see.  So we threw on some clothes, walked the dog then put him in his cage, grabbed the camera and we were out the door.  Everything was coming up roses so to speak.  Until. . . .

Until we got to I 10 which we had to take west.  The highway was at a dead stop.  Like, no one was going anywhere.  We needed an alternate plan.  That plan was McDonald’s for breakfast.  Our thinking was give things 30 minutes or so to settle down and perhaps the highway would be clear.  That was the plan and it seemed to work.

We left the restaurant and traffic it appeared was moving at a good clip.  We took the on ramp and got about half a mile and we came to a halt.  Well, more like a really slow crawl.  We were stuck so nothing to do but crank up the tunes and take it light.  We only had seven miles to go.  We can do this.  Then just like that in about two miles no more traffic and we started moving at the speed limit.  Why?  What caused the back up?  Never were able to figure it out.

A few more miles and we were at our exit and in a few more minutes we were at our intended destination.

We were here to tour The Battleship Alabama.

We were also going to tour the submarine USS Drum.

Have your walking shoes on?  It’s going to be a great tour.  Tonight we’ll start with the submarine USS Drum.

The Drum is 311 feet long with a beam of 27 feet with a displacement of 1,562 tons.  She was named after a fish that made a defensive drumming noise.  She patrolled the Pacific and also planted mines in high Japanese ship traffic lanes.   During her 13 patrols she is credited with sinking 15 ships.  She also survived several depth charge attacks.

Her crew consisted of 7 officers and 65 enlisted men.  Try to keep this in mind when we take the tour and you see first hand the confined quarters in which they all lived while on patrol. 

Some more pictures before we go below decks.  Looking from mid deck forward.

Looking back from the bow.

Let’s start our tour.  Watch your step the ladder is steep and remember to keep your head down.

As we move through the boat keep the following in mind.

Our first stop is the forward torpedo room.

I don’t know about you but this would not be my first choice as to where to bed down.  Count them, six tubes total the one on the left ready for a fish.

A standard torpedo or fish waiting to be loaded. Drum carried a total of 24 when on patrol.

Looking aft from the forward torpedo room.  Be careful going through each door as we move aft, they’re small and it’s a tight squeeze.  Oh, and there is a 12 inch plate on the bottom you also have to step over.  When I was moving through the sub on a couple of occasions several of us would end up in the same area.  Trying to get around one another was interesting.

Officers mess hall.

2 man officers stateroom.  I may not like the current bed in Graybeard, but it sure beats this!  And my bedroom is much bigger.

Captain’s cabin.

The control room.

The dive board, it needed to be all green before the sub could submerge.

Opening these valves flooded the ballast tanks so the submarine could dive.

To come to the surface high pressure air was used to blow the ballast tanks and empty them of water.

Now for the fun climb, we’re going up in the conning tower.  Only one way to get there and that is straight up the ladder.  Are you up to it?  I will admit it was a challenge up and down, especially squeezing through the hatch.

We made it!  Good going.  The conning tower is used when submerged and when on the surface and using the periscope for a torpedo attack.

The chart table.

Torpedo firing panel.

Sonar and radio communication.

Time to go back down.  Watch going through the hatch, its really tight.  Back down we come now to the ship’s galley.  The cooks turned out meals that earned them the reputation of serving the best food in the Navy.  And they did it all in such tight quarters.

Enlisted men’s mess hall.

Bunks for enlisted men. But this doesn’t seem like enough bunks for 65 men so what gives?  Well, in some cases when one got up for their watch, another coming off watch would have that bunk.  This was called hot bunking.  No sleeping in late that’s for sure.

Depth charge sandals issued to crew members going on patrol.

We’re to the stern and the engine rooms.  There were a total of two, one behind the other.

When submerged the sub was powered solely by electric motors powered by batteries encased in containers like this.  The batteries were located in several locations, one bank was under the enlisted men’s sleeping quarters.  I know one thing it  sure won’t fit under the steps in Graybeard.

 

One of two distilling plants used to turn sea water into fresh water.

We’re finally at the aft torpedo room.

Up and out and looking over the stern.

Now I can cross another item off my bucket list, I’ve finally been on a submarine.  Hope you enjoyed the tour as much as I did.  Moving through the Drum I know one thing, I could never, ever go to sea on a submarine.  Those that did were a rare breed.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We still have the tour of the Alabama to do, hopefully tomorrow.  Now, though, I have to go rub a generous amount of BioFreeze on my knees and back.  They got a real workout today.  Same for Barbara.  Tomorrow we’ve already promised ourselves we’re going to sleep in and just take it easy.

Thanks again for coming along with us.  We always enjoy your company.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road