Monday, March 24, 2008

Battleship North Carolina

We had a nice trip to Wilmington North Carolina yesterday. They have a battleship there that went into service after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. That's Mert at the top of the gangway. This ship certainly has many sets of steep stairs and narrow passage ways. If you ever go, don't take your purse, cause you need both hands to manage the stairs. There are about 8 floors to this ship. The tour takes you up 2 sets of stairs, and down one set, then up one, then down 2 sets. I'm sure we were up and down 25 sets of stairs. Mert carried my purse just about the whole time. He wasn't the only man doing that :) It was interesting to see where the sailors slept and to see the kitchen. It's hard to believe they served 2000 meals in the 1 hour. The kitchen was made with mostly stainless steel and really thick butcher block. It looks like you could move in and cook today. The big soup terrines, big stainless sinks and stainless counters reminds me of when I used to work in the kitchen at the Oromocto Hospital. This ship was like a community on the water. In addition to all the usual Captains quarters, navigational equipment and crew quarters, there was also dentist office, a post office, a store, a barbershop, a surgery theatre. This ship had it's own plane that took off from the deck. The deck didn't seem that big, so the pilot would have had to be extremely confident, and accurate. The whole ship tour was very interesting. Years ago, we saw a ship in Halifax, but this was about 5 times bigger. Worth the $12 admission to see it.


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