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July 5th Photos Page |
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I've been onboard five Saturdays since the Parts Raid on May 22nd. The first five photos below are from May 24th and include several from the new City at Sea Tour Route which just opened on May 21st. The next four photos are from June 7th, it was a scorcher, over 100 degrees! Me and the gang spent most of the day in the shop where we had several fans going and managed to stay reasonably cool. There is one photo each from June 14th and June 21st, and the remaining three are from July 5th, which ended with the 6th Annual Battleship Blast. With this installment I'm all caught up on photos from recent trips. I can't believe this is the 120th photo page that I've put up on this site since I started posting photos in April of 2001, quite an amazing journey! My next day onboard will be July 12th, hope to see a few new volunteers there with rags in hand ready to polish some brass! We did get a new volunteer last week, that's two new members in the past year! That's great, but there is always room for more, come on down and get your hands dirty this Saturday!!! |
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| Anyone
who has visited this website over the past eight years knows that I'm always trying to encourage people in the area to come down and volunteer some of their free time. Recently the Battleship launched a very public campaign to try and attract new volunteers, as evidenced by this poster on the pier as you approach the ship. Once again I urge you to come down and spend the day, I promise it'll be a day well spent! |
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| After
passing the recruiting poster above I was treated to some live music on the pier being played by this student band. They had a really wide selection of instruments, including an electric bass guitar, and they sounded great! My hats off to them for coming out and spending their morning playing music to entertain visitors to the ship. Bravo Zulu!! |
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photo, and the next four are shots along the newly opened City at Sea Tour Route. This one shows the inside of the Quick Shop down on Deck 2, Starboard side, just aft of the Turret #2 barbette. It was a place where the crew could buy snacks, cigarettes and other items. |
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| Dentists Office |
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| Sick Bay - Operating Table |
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| Items on display in Sick Bay |
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| Machine Shop |
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| One
of the gang working on a large brass binnacle cover that is part of our ongoing efforts to restore the entire binnacle so it can be put on display onboard the ship. Earlier this year we carried it up to our shop and have been working on it slowly as time permits. |
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| That's
me sitting directly below a huge air handling unit that was
blowing a blast of cool air on me, I hardly moved from that spot all day except to go below for lunch. I did put a nice shine on six brass escape scuttle handle wheels which we later put on all the open hatches leading down to the overnight encampment areas. They added a nice little bit of sparkle to those ladders down to the crew spaces. |
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| Looks
like he's up to no good, guilty for sure! He's working on a
WWII vintage telephone unit which the ships Radio Club asked us to clean up. This was an item that required special care and it turned out great! It will be on display when the ship opens up a WWII display area. This was a sweltering day but the three of us hung out in the shop and managed to get a lot done. Some of the other guys were much braver and they worked up on the Navigation and Flag Bridges, all in all we got a lot done for such a hot steamy day! |
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| Another
shot of the phone, a work in progress, but you'll get to see the finished product further down the page. |
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| June
14th was the day for the Annual PGA Golf event where you can hit golf balls made of fish food into the river off the fantail. In this shot a guy gets ready to tee one off while someone watches his swing and offers pointers. Not a big golfer myself so I didn't hang out here long. |
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| June
21st was the day for the Annual New Jersey Brewers Beerfest and it attracted quite a crowd. The challenge was getting them all off the ship at 5:00 so the Overnight Encampment groups could get settled in. This shot was taken from the aft missile deck looking down in the direction of the After Quarterdeck where the guys who make the ships Encampment Program shine every weekend were gathering and plotting their strategy for the night. I see these guys onboard every Saturday night as I am getting ready to head home, and I take it for granted that I'll see them all again on my next trip. I say goodbye, see you next time, they say have a safe trip home, and off I go back to Virginia. Recent events have made me to look at things a little bit differently though and value even more the times I have onboard with all the guys that I call ship mates. Tom, to you I say - Fair Winds and Following Seas my friend... |
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| Giving
the phone back to the Radio Club, look at that bad boy shinning. Great Job Frank!! Now it's on to the link of anchor chain, eh buddy?? |
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| A
shot of the crowd mingling on deck at the beginning of the Battleship Blast. I just finished a hard days work shining brass on the Forecastle and was ready for the party. I'm just arriving back onboard and headed for the bar you can see straight ahead for a well earned Rum and Coke! |
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| The
theme for this years Battleship Blast was the 50's and this group sang many of the classics from that era. The rain held off until after dinner, and it only sprinkled during the fireworks so it wasn't too bad. As the fireworks were ending though the rain picked up and it got pretty messy. I must say one thing, the chocolate dipping fountain for dessert was AWESOME!! I had my fill of pound cake, mini cheesecakes, bananas and who knows what else all dipped in chocolate, I vote we do that again next year for sure!! Once again it was a great event and I hope we raised lots of money to help fund our ongoing restoration and maintenance efforts on the Battleship. |
