Blaze Hits Lady Lex
Just after 1700 on 2 April 2001, a fire broke out on the bridge of the Corpus Christi, Texas, museum ship Lexington (CV-16), causing damage to the superstructure severe enough that deck plates were warped by the intense heat. The fire, which started after all tourists had left the ship for the day, burned for about two hours before more than 30 firefighters put out the blaze. No one was injured in the fire, although about 20 staff members and caterers were on board at the time preparing for a banquet.
The accident occurred when an employee spray-painting the navigation room created a spark with a paint gun, and the room caught fire, officials said. The fire spread from the navigation bridge to the flag bridge before it was extinguished. Both areas now are closed to the public indefinitely until they are repaired, although the museum reopened on 4 April, and all other areas of the ship presently are open.
Firefighters had trouble reaching the fire, said Assistant Fire Chief Eloy Ceballos, in part because of the cramped spaces of the Lexington’s island. Firefighters also had trouble using the ship’s water supply system, because the ship’s pumps were unable to provide enough water to fight the fire. Hoses eventually had to be run from shoreside, Ceballos said.
The fire created a great deal of smoke, and standing water on the deck was so hot it was nearly boiling, said one museum official—but no artifacts were destroyed.
The Lexington, commissioned in early 1943, served in nearly every major operation in the Pacific Theater. Nicknamed the “Blue Ghost” by the Japanese because she repeatedly defied reports of her demise throughout the war, the Lexington’s air group was responsible for destroying more than 800 enemy aircraft and sinking or damaging some 900,000 tons of shipping.
The Lexington ended her career in 1991 as a training carrier for the U.S. Navy and was the world’s oldest operating carrier at the time. She was brought to Corpus Christi to be a museum ship in 1992.
Those wishing to help the Lexington Museum repair the damage to the ship can send their donations to: USS Lexington Museum Fire Restoration Fund, P.O. Box 23076, Corpus Christi, TX 78403.
Pearl Harbor Premieres
Disney’s $140-million extravagant recreation of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was unveiled before a select audience of several thousand on board the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis (CVN-74) in the movie’s namesake harbor on 21 May 2001. (See Larry Suid’s analysis of Pearl Harbor on page 20.) The movie, starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, and a coterie of other Hollywood stars in parts big and small, opened in theaters on 25 May and took in more than $75 million in its first weekend at the box office. Audiences thronged to see the movie despite the fact that critics gave it numerous negative reviews. “Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects,” said the Chicago Sun-Times’s Roger Ebert, “surrounded by a love story of stunning banality.” The Washington Post called it “Bore-a, Bore-a, Bore-a,” while A. O. Scott of The New York Times declared facetiously, “The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II has inspired a splendid movie. . . . The name of that movie is ‘From Here to Eternity.’”
Fabled Coin Found in Hunley
The most sought-after artifact that every expert and historian hoped would be inside the remains of the CSS H. L. Hunley was discovered just days before the excavation of the Confederate submarine was shut down for the summer on 25 May 2001.
The gold coin that Lieutenant George E. Dixon had carried for good luck went with him to his grave in the silty waters off Charleston, South Carolina. Nearly 140 years later, the coin was plucked from the sediment in the sub at the spot where Dixon’s left pants pocket would have been.
The visibly warped 1860 U.S. $20 gold piece—a gift from his sweetheart, Queenie Bennett—saved Dixon’s leg and his life at the battle of Shiloh in April 1862. He was one of the first men of the 21st Alabama Infantry shot at the beginning of the battle, but the gold coin in his pocket stopped the Minie bullet that hit his leg. The inscription on the back of the gold piece confirmed the veracity of the story: “Shiloh/April 6, 1862/My Life Pre- server/G.E.D.”
Dixon later recuperated in Mobile, Alabama, where he met and soon worked for Horace Lawson Hunley, the builder of the Confederacy’s first successful submersible.
The discovery of the artifact came two days before the first phase of the Hunky's excavation was to end. The remains of all nine crew members, including Dixon, have been discovered and removed from the narrow hull. The excavation of the Hunley will continue in September; weekend tours to view the sub will resume from 16 June to Labor Day.
Another object important to the story of the Hunley was found just a few days before the coin: the blue carbide light lantern that Dixon may have used to signal the successful sinking of the USS Housatonic on 17 February 1864. The lantern was discovered an arms-length away from Dixon’s remains, under the forward conning tower.
The tiny submarine has yielded a wealth of once-humble, but now priceless, artifacts: hair, bone, fabric, leather, shoes, hats, pocket knives, pipes, tobacco, and other items that the doomed crew members took with them on their one-way journey. Material found in the sub is so well preserved that CAT scans of the crew member’s skulls have revealed bits of intact brain tissue.
With the initial excavation finished, several areas of the Hunley will be left filled with silt: the forward conning tower and the bottom of the sub where the crew sat. Digging in these areas will continue when work begins again in September.
One intriguing mystery that remains is the surprising discovery of an identity medallion of a Union soldier taken from the neck of one of the sub’s crewmen. Private Ezra Chamberlin of the 7th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry is listed as having died in the assault on Battery Wagner, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, on 11 July 1863. His medallion, an unofficial precursor of the modern dog tag that usually was purchased from private vendors, most likely was simply a souvenir taken from the battlefield, says Parris Island Military Museum Chief Curator Stephen Wise. There is almost no chance, says Wise, that the crewman found in the Hunley is Chamberlin.
Tours will run from 0920 to 1720 on Saturdays and from 1200 to 1920 on Sundays. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on the Internet at www.etix.com or by calling toll-free at (866) 866-9938. There will be a $3 service charge for orders made by phone and a $2 charge for Internet orders.
Midshipman Earns Award
U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman Peter Buryk has won the 2000 Naval Institute Plebe History Contest with his essay, “Mine Warfare in the Pacific during World War II.” Buryk competed for the award, which was judged by the Academy’s history department, against his entire class of about 1,000 midshipmen. He is a 1999 graduate of the Fayetteville Academy in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he was salutatorian.
Naval History Award Given
Vice Admiral Arthur Cebrowski (right), chairman of the U.S. Naval Institute’s board of directors, presented Jerome O’Connor with the 2000 Naval History Author of the Year Award at the Institute’s 127th Annual Meeting on 25 April 2001. O’Connor received this honor for his article “Into the Gray Wolves’ Den,” published in the June 2000 Naval History, which provides a rare and detailed glimpse of the still-standing World War II German U-boat pens in several ports across France.
Indy Sailors to Get Medals
On 18 April 2001, in a letter sent to lawmakers, the U.S. Navy announced plans to award a Navy Unit Commendation Medal to the crew of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), torpedoed and sunk in July 1945 after having delivered atomic bomb components to Tinian Island in the western Pacific. The Navy also plans to “modify” the personnel record of the cruiser’s commanding officer, then-Captain Charles Butler McVay 111, who was court- martialed and convicted of negligence.
The Navy did not specify, however, how McVay’s record would be modified, or whether he would be exonerated of his conviction, as requested by Congress a 2000 “sense-of-Congress” resolution.
“Rear Admiral McVay’s record is currently being retrieved from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Mo., and will be reviewed to determine the best approach to modify his record," said the letter from Bonnie Morehouse, the senior civilian in the Navy’s office of the Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
The Navy until now repeatedly had declined to change the findings of McVay's court-martial or give the crew medals.
The Indianapolis went down on 29 July 1945 after being torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58. Some 850 of the Indianapolis’s crew of 1,196 survived the sinking; only 316 were rescued four days and five nights later. The rest had been winnowed by shark attacks and exposure.
Monitor Recovery Continues
The continuing effort to recover the U.S. Navy’s first ironclad is in full swing. This summer, the engine of the USS Monitor will be removed from the vessel’s wreck site off North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras on the Outer Banks. The partnership of organizations involved in the recovery—the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Navy and Army—hopes to have the engine safely in hand by the end of July.
The Monitor 2001 Expeditions are part of an ongoing long-term multiagency project to protect and preserve the ironclad Monitor. The key objectives of Monitor 2001 are to complete the stabilization of the vessel’s hull, recover her engine and associated components, recover the section of armor belt that overlies the turret, and, time permitting, excavate the turret in preparation for its recovery in 2002.
The mission is divided into three phases. Phase one, now complete, consisted of a number of preparatory dives by divers from the USS Grapple (ARS-53) from 25 March to 11 May that involved the recovery of delicate artifacts in the stern of the Monitor and the placement of the frame that will be used to lift the ironclad’s engine. In phase two, scheduled to last most of June and July, the U.S. Navy’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, with support from NOAA, will recover the Monitor’s engine and cut and recover a portion of the armor belt above the turret. In phase three, from July to September, divers from the USS Grasp (ARS-51) will prepare the site for turret recovery.
Once the engine is brought up, it will be transported to the Mariners’ Museum’s conservation area to begin the long process of its conservation and eventual display in the museum. The museum worked with Newport News Shipbuilding to create a 12,250-cubic-foot conservation tank to house the Monitor’s 30-ton engine. Made from half-inch steel plates, this mammoth 35-foot-square tank stands 10 feet high and holds more than 90,000 gallons of water.
The Mariners’ Museum was selected by the federal government as custodian of all physical remains of the Monitor in 1987, and is charged with housing, conserving, and displaying all artifacts taken from the wreck site. The USS Monitor Center, a new wing of the museum announced in March 2000, will be the permanent home of all Monitor material and objects. The center also will sponsor publications, internships, and educational programs for students, scholars, and families, as well as create a website that will provide detailed information about the Monitor.
The Monitor engaged in the world’s first battle between iron-armored warships on 9 March 1862, with the CSS Virginia, before she foundered off the coast of North Carolina nine months later while being towed by the USS Rhode Island. The Monitor’s wreck, now lying in 240 feet of water, became the nation’s first National Marine Sanctuary in 1975.
18th-Century Replica Schooner Launched
On 24 March 2001, a replica of an 18th-century Royal Navy schooner was launched in historic Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The two-masted, 53-foot-long vessel has been fully rigged and is scheduled to begin her first voyage on Chesapeake Bay on 4 July.
The Schooner Sultana Project is an undertaking of Chester River Craft and Art, Inc., of Chestertown. It is dedicated to enriching the communities of the mid-Atlantic region, and especially Maryland’s Eastern Shore, by supporting various projects and undertakings that provide educational opportunities focusing on craft, art, history, and the environment. The principal classroom for the project is the full-sized reproduction of the 1767 schooner Sultana.
The original Sultana was built in Boston as a cargo schooner. She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1768 and was used to enforce tea taxes on the North American coast from Halifax to the Chesapeake Bay up to the time of the Revolution. In May 1772, the Sultana had a firefight with the men of the brig Carolina after seizing smuggled goods found in the brig’s hold. Several months later, she was sold—and her ultimate fate remains unknown.
The Sultana is one of the most well-documented vessels from the pre-Revolutionary period, with all her daily logbooks, musterbooks, and correspondence from 1768-1772 preserved in the Public Records Office in London. The modern Sultana was intended as a school ship from the moment of her keel-laying in October 1998, and local volunteers and school children participated in her construction.
For more information about the Sultana, visit the project’s website at www.schooner-sultana.com
Park Service Offers Pass
The National Park Service has instituted a new program to make it easier to visit its 384 parks, 245 of which are historical parks, monuments, memorials, battlefields, or military parks. Visitors to Fort Sumter, the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, the USS Arizona Memorial, or any of the other numerous maritime-related National Parks across the country now can use the National Parks Pass in all parks that charge admission. The pass, which costs $50 and is good for an entire year, admits all vehicle occupants and/or individuals wherever entrance fees are charged. To purchase a pass or find out more information, visit the National Park Service’s website at www.nationalparks.org, call toll-free at (888) GO-PARKS, or visit any National Park.