Looking about Tampa

Leaving the hotel, we walked down a charming walkway along the channel.  

The museum of memories for Al.

We came to the exhibit ship of a representative of the liberty ships built rapidly during World War II.  Germany sent submarines out into the Atlantic ocean to sink all ships they could to starve England.   As discussed on Wikipedia, some 2,710 Liberty ships were built to replace cargo ships for the Atlantic run and also other areas.  This ship represents the Victory series that were a slight improvement over the Liberty ship.  Some 534 of this type were constructed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_ship

Plan and elevation of the Victory ship.

These ships were operated by the Merchant Marine instead of the US Navy.

Mockup of the helm of a ship.   

This area was called the wheelhouse. 

A helmsman stood behind the wheel and looked out into the ocean ahead.  Ahead of him was the gimbal which housed a compass that the helmsman followed.  The course would be ordered by the officer of the deck who also gave orders to the engine room by the annunciator with the white face in the center.  On the ship that Al was on in the Gulf of Mexico from 1957 to 1958 the officer was above on the bridge.  

The chartroom.

The ship's chronometer.

Al was an Electronics Technician and his main piece of gear was the radar.  It was stuck into the chartroom for many ships did not plan for radar.  Each day the navigator would "shoot" the stars with a sextant.  Three separate readings were made and when the star was lined up with the horizon for its angle, he would say "mark" and the time was noted.  Then he went to the chartroom and using navigational charts would draw a line on a chart for each star.  Hopefully these lines would intersect at a point where the ship actually was.  One of Al's duties was to tune in a United States Naval Observatory radio signal and then compare and log the amount of time the chronometer departed from true time.   I is interesting to note that all this is unnecessary with Global Positioning System.

USS Pascagoula, PCE 874, Al served aboard from 1957-1958.

The ship Al was on was the USS Pascagoula, PCE 874, named in honor of that shipyard.

Sue evaluating the type of bunk Al used for 34 months at sea.

To honor the women who did a lot of work building Liberty and Victory ships.

A German submariner.

Al's ship put into Port Everglades near Fort Lauterdale.  While there, he and some shipmates were invited onto a German freighter.  In the wardroom, we met a man who told us that he was on a German submarine and they looked at the Miami skyline all lighted up.  This propeller or "screw" was recovered from a sunken German U-Boat.

Two folks on a memory trip.

Two examples of how the 1% lives.