Sunday, March 3, 2013

USS Midway CV 41

Let's visit the USS Midway  aircraft carrier  CV 41.  Its been a museum since 2004, and has been in service since 1945..  Its moored here in San Diego along the city piers just South of the cruise ship docks..


Along the starboard side the ticket windows are by the ships island..  It costs $19 for general admission and $16 for seniors..

Inside the bow of the ship these are the anchor chains under the bow...

We found the search and rescue area of the ship that had Helicopters on the flight deck above...  This is the ready room for the pilots..


Inside the main hangar deck, they must have had a party the night before because it was still all set up for the guests..  As the day progressed they took down all these tables and chairs...  and the stage too.


Up on the flight deck we wandered among the planes on display..


This is an F 4 Phantom and I remember them as they flew missions over Viet Nam....


F 14 ... I think, as I am not good at recognizing all the different planes...


I wanted to go see where they drove the ship......  So I walked toward the island..


This is the center line of the Angle Deck where they recovered the planes..  They did not have any arresting cables stretched across the deck, as I'm sure that would have been something someone could trip on...  They said the cables were 2 1/2 inches in diameter and were positioned 5 inches above the surface..


Is this a Gruman F8?  It doesn't have the drop wing shape of the F4U Corsair....   Sam in St Louis, was stationed on several carriers, and chimed in on a comment below that this is a A1 Skyraider... by Douglas aircraft...


The Island and an A 6 Intruder to the right of the picture...


Inside the Island this was the captains meeting room...


He had this lounge area in his living quarters...


Older turbo prop Airborne Early Warning and Control   E-2 perhaps...  See the control tower office above the planes tail section...?


Maps and charts...


Radar Room... This room was completely dark with colored lights..  The radars were still spinning and had aircraft plotted on their screens..


And as a Ham, I was interested in the radio room....


Pictures of all the commanding officers...


These were the actual radios....  These were the receivers and the transmitters were in stacks in the next row....


More of officer's country...


This is the Air Boss's chair that I have my arm on....  The seat where the lady is facing me is the Mini Boss...   A mini boss sits in that seat for a year before he is moved up to a boss..


Looking forward out of the Mini Boss's window at the bow and launching catapults...


Looking toward the stern from the Air Boss's window...  This would be the same as the control tower on a land based airport...


Just a few steps forward we found the main Bridge...  This is where you drive the ship and the main captain has a chair to the port side...


The docent is explaining how they ran the ship from this platform and that there was always an officer of the deck on duty here when the Captain wasn't present...


The Engine Order Telegraph...    Set the RPMs on the dials at the bottom...


Now here is the steering wheel...  And what I found interesting was that the sailor standing this watch couldn't even see out of the main bridge windows...  The midway has been remodeled several times and the bridge has been extended forward...  But the wheel house is still in the old position in the center of the room...


So I went looking for the other end of that engine order telegraph...  Down in Engineering... That would be the engine room to us land lubbers..

First I found this control room where they must have controlled the boilers...


But here is one of the steam turbines...  HP stands for High Pressure...


And this board is the other end of the Engine Order Telegraph..  These wheels control the amount of steam allowed to enter the turbines...  One wheel to go forward and the one on the very left to go backward..


The senior chief docent that was there in the engine room was adamant that all forward revolutions had to stop before the reverse wheel was turned on...  They had chains and padlocks on the wheels even now..

This next gray box is a giant reduction gearing mechanism..


More of the steam piping from the boilers.....  This is engine room three, and I was told that there are four of them in total as there are four propellers on the rear of the ship...



This ship is 1000 feet long, and I had walked almost all of it several times, so my legs were shot...  Loyce had given up and went back to the car a while ago, so my tour was over....

If I got some of the planes named wrong or you were stationed aboard a carrier and my descriptions are in error please leave a comment, and I will fix it...

This blog could go on forever as there is much to learn about a ship of this size...  But remember this is 1945 technology and I was reminded that it was the analog Navy, and since we are now in a Digital age that is why the ship has become a museum...

But this ship launched many of the sorties that flew into Iraq on Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s...  She was in service for more than 50 years...

In 1975 she was one of the ships off of the coast of Viet Nam as the helicopters rescued people from Saigon...    The stories seem endless....

USS Midway CV-41 Wiki

Retired Rod

5 comments:

  1. Great tour and pictures, looks like you had a great day!

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  2. Thank you for the tour. And free at that. Thank you for paying the $16 so I could tag along. Very interesting

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  3. Hey Rod that prop job, with the four bladed Hamilton Standard prop is an A-1 Skyraider, funny they always seemed to have a 500 side number.They were the last of the propeller attack planes made by Douglas,The Skyhawk replaced them, but they soldiered on until about 1967 on carriers and all through the Viet Nam war from land bases.These were the planes called Sandie's that protected our search and rescue helicopters on missions over land. I spent a short det on the USS Franklin Roosevelt CVA 42 almost and identical twin of Midway..Looks like a fun day would have brought back many memories for me. Sam & Donna..

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  4. butterbean carpenterMarch 3, 2013 at 3:29 PM

    Howdy Rod,
    Thanx, for the tour of the Midway!!! Those old flatops were BIG, but with the new planes, that land like hecktocopters they don't need the length, anymore!! I helped build a fighter for the Navy, I've never seen in any of the museums, the F8U Crusader, with the tilt-up wing!!! You should have brought the 'scooter', but you traded it in; it would have saved your legs, except climbing the ways!!!
    Hurry up and go back to AZ, so you can ride some before you ave to go where the snow is!!!
    Have enjoyed this trip, to Dago, very much, a lot more than the one in the '50s!!!

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  5. My first tour of an aircraft carrier - thanks Rod - great photos and commentary. It sure is big below decks! The Abraham Lincoln often visits Victoria and they have tours so next time I think I'll take advantage of it.

    You and Loyce are sure having a great time visiting the attractions in Palm Springs.

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