In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Great White Fleet (more here), two naval ships docked at the cruise ship terminals in Downtown Seattle for a couple of days. They were the USS Preble and the USS Rushmore. I’m not exactly sure if there were any other events elsewhere, if not, a little odd since the Great White Fleet didn;t make a stop in Seattle on its tour 100 years ago.
I’ve always told myself that I should go down and take the tours they offer when they come through town (often times during Seafair) but I always miss it by a day or just don;t have the time when they come around.
So I proceeded down to Terminal 30 and got down around 12.30. Tours were going to last until 2. The tours of each ship were supposed to last about 20-30 minutes for each boat. The group I was with went and saw the USS Preble first and an 1.5 hours later the tour was over so I didn;t get a chance to see the USS Rushmore. But, the USS Preble was pretty interesting. Although commissioned only 6 years ago, the bridge looked straight out of the 50s or 60s other than a few LCD screens providing some information. The architecture was gray and blocky. The buttons and dials from an age past. Granted, don’t fix what works. They had a helicopter on board. Basically, we gat a tour of the deck, the bridge, and the helicopter landing and storage area.
The most amusing moment, and really the only time I wanted to take a picture, was of this on the bridge of the ship:
I’m glad this function of this maul is clarified for me. heehee.
