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Wednesday, July 16, 2003 |
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We got a late start on our way back to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Bowfin and the USS Missouri. After waiting half an hour at the wrong bus stop, we finally ended up in the right place. Waiting gave us time to observe some Honolulu traffic, which is very busy. In addition to the limousines that serve as taxis, the streets in this part of Hawaii are filled with busses (some contracted by tour companies and some run by the city), bikes, scooters and trolleys. We've even seen a few brave souls out with skateboards.
We actually got to Pearl Harbor after two. Well, almost, we got off the bus a couple stops too early. This gave us the opportunity to take a stroll past a couple of gates into the base. We passed by some fuel storage tanks that, according to Steve - our Duck driver, were not bombed by the Japanese in 1941. If they had been they would have set the war effort back by 18 months.
When we got to the park, we got lucky and were able to buy a combination package to both the USS Bowfin submarine and the Battleship Missouri memorial, but we don't recommend starting your tour that late. We did, however, have a great time.
We toured the submarine first. The Bowfin is known as "The Avenger of Pearl Harbor". It was launched about a year after the Arizona was destroyed and now serves as a testament to the lives lost in that attack.
We quickly found out that there is no wasted space in a submarine. We saw bunks everywhere, even in the torpedo bays. Bathrooms (or "heads") also popped up in the strangest places. Stephanie wondered how they fit eighty men into the tiny sub until she found out that they worked in shifts. The dining area (or "crew's mess"), for example, held twenty four sailors at a time. They also shared beds, some sleeping while others were on duty.
The Battleship Missouri is quite large (almost three football fields long). It is actually larger than the Titanic was. There were some delays in construction because the war took all the available steel, but when the Missouri was finally launched, it was done so under the direction of Harry S. Truman, then a Junior Senator from Missouri. His nineteen year old daughter, Mary Margaret, had the honor of christening the ship and Truman continued to regard the Missouri as "his" for years to come.
We opted to take a guided tour and Stacey, our hostess, was quite informative. She told us that guns took seventy to 120 men to operate, each having a different job. She also told us some of the differences between the Missouri in the forties and the eighties, when the ship was modernized. For example, in World War II, the gunpowder bags were silk because that material was easy to slide into the canisters.
Until the modernization, many of the crew on board the Missouri slept in hammocks hung three or four rows high. These have been converted into bunks, but, according to Stacey, the quarters still do not meet US Prison Standards. Inmates have much more room than did the sailors.
The Missouri is a large battleship. At its widest point, it is 108 feet, giving it less than a foot on either side to slip through the Panama Canal. It is twenty decks high.
One of the nicknames of the Missouri is "The Lucky Lady" because no one ever got hurt on board the ship in battle. It first served in WWII, when the days of the battleships were coming to an end. However, because Truman was in office during the Korean War and because he regarded the Missouri as "his" ship, it served a tour or two during that conflict also. In fact, it did so well, that they recommissioned one of the other battleships built at the same time as the Missouri and allowed it to serve during the Korean War as well. The last time that the Missouri was in active military service was during Operation Desert Storm. It was brought to Pearl Harbor in 1998 and now watches over the remains of the fallen USS Arizona.
Stacey said that many people think it fitting that the Missouri and the Arizona stay side by side, for they are the "bookends" of WWII. The sinking of the Arizona in Pearl Harbor helped spur America into war with the Japanese. Years later, the USS Missouri was the site of the Japanese surrender.
We looked at the documents signed by the Allies signifying an end to the War. There turned out to be a mistake on the Japanese copy. The Canadian representative signed on the line under his official spot, throwing all of the other signatures off by one line. Therefore, someone had to cross out what was typed on the document and hand write the names of the countries under where the representatives had actually signed.
There was one other error made during the surrender. Someone had donated a beautiful carved table on which the signing was to take place. It turned out not to be long enough, so, moments before the ceremony, a table was taken from the "officer's mess" and used to hold the documents. After the signing, the table went back down for lunch until someone realized the importance and was sent to retrieve it back.
After touring the Bowfin and Missouri, we returned to our room. We decided to try out the hotel room service, which turned out to be quite tasty. Stephanie especially enjoyed the ice cream, but then, she generally likes anything chocolate.