Hello again all!
Well, I made it to Norfolk, Va. in one piece and so did the Santee. Thru 12 hours of highway and some pretty rough roads, the Santee arrived unscathed!
Here are some photos that I thought you may enjoy. This will be the last post on the Santee build. Thanks for all the posts and your interest. Back to the Indiana build. Stay tuned! More to come
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File comment: Here we are at the Museum. It is on the second floor. The building has three floors.
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File comment: This is looking to the left of the building. Nauticus is the first floor which is a gift shop, restaurant, and some marine life exhibits. The third floor is also Nauticus and has other exhibits such as a deep sea sub, and a virtual Aegis Gunnery practice, among other items of interest. Something for everyone, if you will.
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File comment: The USS Wisconson. Take a look at that bow. You have no idea how big this is till you stand next to it. Totally awesome! I talked to some former crew members while I was here and they said normal full speed was about 33 knots. Rumor has it that it would do 40 plus, but vibrated pretty bad..........Wow!
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File comment: Here's another bow shot. Each anchor weighs 15,000 lbs. Each link in the anchor chains weighs 120lbs. There's alot of links!
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File comment: Look at the people on deck. This gives you some idea of the size of this ship. She rides pretty high in the water as she is empty as far as fuel ,ammo, crew, etc.
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File comment: The #2 16" gun turrent. Those blast bags are really heavy rubber. I pushed on one and could'nt get it to budge. When these guns went off, the quietest place was inside the turrent, believe it or not. Would'nt want to be standing next to one, it would blow out your eardrums.
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File comment: Note the gangway. This leads to the second floor of the building which is the actual ship museum. Addmission here is free. The rest of the building, 1st and 3rd floors are about $11.00.
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File comment: Starboard side view of the fwd. superstructure. You can walk some of the decks on the Wisconson, but you cannot go inside. It is classified as "Inactive Reserve", so it is still a commisioned Navy Ship. Rumor has it that the Navy will give the ship to the city of Norfolk, and eventually they will open it up, at a cost of several million dollars.
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File comment: Here we are on the second floor at the entrance to the Museum.
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File comment: There are quite a few models here, mostly Civil War and WW1 ships. I did'nt have time to take photos of all of them but this one was most impressive. The USS Maine in 1/48th scale. It is a Builders Model, built by Newport News shipyard. It is to the tee and exact in every detail, truly impressive.....
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File comment: A close up. Check out the detail!
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File comment: Mr. Charles Howse. He was a gunner in a TBF Avenger, shown here giving a short speech at the dedication ceremonies.
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File comment: And here she is, USS Santee. She is on display just as you enter the Museum. This is temporary as the model will be moved to the "Battle of the Atlantic" exhibit when the area is ready. Note the red button. This is a momentary push-on switch that activates the hanger deck lights. There is one on the other side of the base as well.
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File comment: Here's where the Santee will go when this area is renovated. She will go in the center of this room so visitors can walk all the way around it.
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File comment: Your's truly with the santee......
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This concludes another build here at Modelwarships.com. Hope you all found it interesting. I had a good time! Thanks to Cadman for everything, and Stay Tuned!! More to come....................