[AT] Christmas Trees and Ships Plank Project

[TCHARPE at aol.com]

       George, Herb and Charlie,

           Well,  you asked for it .

           My ship was the  USS Hoggatt Bay  CVE-75.... This is one of the 
"Baby Flat Tops"
       that Henry Kaiser built in Vancouver WA (Across the Columbia River 
from Portland OR)
       Flight deck was  412' x 80'. ( OAL was  512'-3")  We had two Skinner, 
piston type, 
       Steam engines for power that developed 4500 HP ea.  These engines had 
FIVE 
       Cylinders and used  oil fired Superheated steam.  Each cylinder had a 
big door that 
       you could walk into for maintenance. (Engine stopped of course).  
These were in the
       crankcase section.   Our maximum speed was  19 kts.  The ship was 
commissioned 
       on` January 11, 1944 and decommissioned  July 24, 1946.. sold for 
scrap  3-31-1960
       I came aboard July 1945 and was aboard through decommissioning in 
Boston

          All USA carriers of WW2 had wood flight decks.  The wood in our 
flight deck was
       Douglas Fir, harvested in the immediate are around Vancouver.  Navy 
tradition was
       that any ship that had wood decking, had some of this wood salvaged 
and put into
       museum storage.  The Navy Historical Center, in Washington DC,  
contacted me
       since I was the president of our Ship's Association, asking if we 
would be interested
       in obtaining this salvaged decking.  YOU BETCHA !!   We were informed 
that they
       had  10 pcs - 10 ft long.  Later communications stated that these 
pieces were only 
       4'-0 long.  When I received the shipment ...... they were only  23 
inches long !!!
       I think they must have used a "reverse" shrink scale to measure them.  
Ha !

          Anyhow, we proposed to cut these into a given length, which turned 
out to be ONE
       Inch long and disperse them among the original "Plank Owners".  These 
are people
       that were in the Commissioning Crew.  Tradition requests that only 
these people are
       qualified to receive this piece of planking.  However, since there are 
so few of these
       people still living, we were authorized to give a piece to any member 
of the crew or
       their surviving widows or families......however... ONLY ONE piece to a 
family.   We 
       attached an engraved small brass ID plaque to each piece stating  this 
was 
       GENUINE PLANKING from the USS Hoggatt Bay,  confirmed by paperwork 
issued
       by the Navy Historical Center in Washington DC.

           I managed to make  196 mementoes for our ships crew and delivered 
same to
       our reunion which was held in Branson MO this year.  Still have around 
 80 pcs
       on hand but those will probably be gone when the next issue of our 
ship's newspaper
       comes out this month, advising of their availability.  It was a long, 
tedious task but
       worth every second of time expended on it.

           The Navy Historical Center provided me with a list of names of 
every person that 
       had previously received a piece of planking from them over the years 
and also the
       names of all qualified, original "PlankOwners".

           There-in lies the story of the planking !!   Hope you enjoy it !!

       Ted