[AT] Christmas Trees and Ships Plank Project

charlie hill chill8 at cox.net
Tue Dec 6 09:26:59 PST 2005


Great story Ted.  Thanks for sharing it and thanks for your service among 
those of the "Greatest Generation".

When I was a child we had to pass through Wilmington NC on the way to visit 
my grandparents.  In a creek just off the Cape Fear river on the S side of 
town and about 2 miles from the current home of the USS North Carolina were 
dozens, maybe hundreds of moth balled liberty ships sitting side by side. 
They stayed there for probably 20 years or more before they were eventually 
scraped.
It was sad to see them go.

I'm glad you were able to save a momento of the Hoggart Bay for your 
shipmates.  Sounds to me like someone else got ahold of some of that wood 
before it finally got to you.  I can here it now.  Heck he doesn't need 10' 
pieces.  I'd like to have 6' off each one to build a floor in my den.   A 
few weeks/months later..... Heck he doesn't need 4' sections  I'll take 2 
feet and use it for .............

I'm glad you got as much as you did.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <TCHARPE at aol.com>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 10:51 AM
Subject: [AT] Christmas Trees and Ships Plank Project


>
>
>       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
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> Remembering Our Friend Cecil Monson 11-4-2005
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
>
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