Seapower

With one full day to spend in San Diego its a tough choice as to what to do. Being the eighth largest city in the USA and second largest in California it has much to offer from its neighbourhoods or city villages as they have been termed, including its old town, down town area, italian quarter etc.

The city's economy in recent decades has been closely linked with its deep water harbour and association with the worlds largest Naval fleet, the US Pacific fleet. We have already witnessed evidence of this in our short walk yesterday.

It perhaps is fitting then that today we decide to select a visit to the Aircraft Carrier USS Midway, first launched in 1945 after the second world war, now a museum, as the first part of todays itinerary, this and the fact that the UK no longer has an Aircraft carrier of its own to visit.

We depart the hotel a little later than usual, once again having made use of Skype to catch up on the news from home, the £10 credit has lasted well and after the calls a balance of £1.96 remains. I remain impressed by its ease of use and clarity of each call.

The drive to the USS Midways berth is short and uncomplicated and we pull into the car park on the jetty alongside the massive vessel having paid a reasonable $7 for four hours parking. Entrance to the ship is by ticket only and these are procured from a cabin at the foot of the access staircase, The general admission ticket is $10 for adults and $8 for youths, travellers cheques not welcome.

The obligatory photo concession awaits us on the vast Hanger deck and we pose in front of the now standard green cloth, a scene can be photo shopped in at the exit of the relevant attraction, the going rate for all these types of concessions is $20 for two 6x8 pictures.

Commissioned in 1942 at a cost of ninety million dollars the USS Midway was the largest carrier of her day, too big even to pass through the Panama Canal. Later refits increased her deck area and aircraft capability even more, with the cost over runs on one of these precluding similar refits on sister ships.

The history of the Midway includes the interesting first test firing of a missile (actually a captured V2 rocket) from a seaborne platform. The ships last major action was undertaken during the 1991 Gulf war where she sortied missions for operation Dessert Shield.

The ships command areas are dressed as they would have appeared during that mission. In walking around the ship it is interesting to note the contrast between the space given over to machines and machinery and that provided for the 4000 men that lived and worked aboard her.

This extends throughout all aspects although the tower tour illustrates the confined space in which the sea and air command crews operated, it was pointed out on the bridge that the current command area is effectively twice as large following refits as when Midway was first commissioned.

The original bridge walls still in place forming a central enclave from which the helmsman steers the ship and orders are recorded as they are given.

A second striking anomaly in this technological behemoth is the relative antiquity of the apparatus which both controls it, powers it and supports its mission delivery. The USS Carl Vinson a Nimitz class Nuclear carrier sits at a berth across the port from the USS Midway, we wonder how its systems may appear to us, clearly the technology in use here is robust and proven.

In the CIC (Command information centre) below the bridge we see examples of current technology, touch screens and large display systems, somewhat anachronistically grafted into a control room in which chart tables, blackboards and huge circular cathode ray tube based radar displays abound in the compact space.

Concluding our tour of the tower we step out onto the flight deck which is populated by aircraft typical of those which operated from this carrier. 

The exception being an F14, the real star of the 1980's film Top Gun. The F14 on display bears the legend USS Enterprise on its twin tail, the audio tour for this exhibit explains that the F14 was considered too large an aircraft to operate from USS Midway.

It goes on to explain that Midway had recovered two F14's launched from Enterprise when shortly into their flight the weather turned bad.

One of the pilots of these aircraft goes on to detail the experience of attempting to land on the smaller pitching deck of the Midway.

The audio tour itself is well done, at each exhibit a number is displayed which when entered into the audio device handset provides narration regarding the exhibit and occasionally the option to play specific audio commentary from a user of that equipment.

We hear about the landing officers job and his emergency escape padded net which he could throw himself into over the side to avoid a crashing aircraft, various aircraft and their mission types are described, as is the steam catapult operation 0 to 150mph in two seconds.

The Sea king responsible for the recovery of each of the Apollo lunar missions is also accessible from the flight deck and we hear how for Apollo 13, Jim Lovell (commander) sat and chatted with the flight crew during its return to the ship as quarantine for the failed crew was unnecessary.

As we walk around the ship David comments how it smells like his Grandfathers workshop, 'The oil' I say, 'yes that's it and the metal' replies david. On the engineering deck further memories are stirred when we come across the repair workshop, its lathes, shapers, bending machines and heavy duty vices.

The engine room is below an engineering command area where a resin crew observe gauges and monitors long since static. Passing them down some steps we enter the main engine room, silent apart from a German tourist discussing the details of the engine systems with one of the Docents, (voluntary tour guides).

Its now 15:00 we've been aboard four hours and our parking ticket has expired, so its time to leave, we decline the photo purchase offer, having invested in a variety of flight simulator experiences during our visit and disembark for the second stop of the day.

Posted in: attractions