HAMPTON ROADS 1

Norfolk: The Navy Owns It

Not much space for words but lots of room for big ships. Above and below is the retired battleship, the USS Wisconsin, now a museum in Norfolk. 

Looking straight on, its 108' beam gives no clue to its 887' length. It's sleekness contributed to a top speed of 28 knots (or 32 mph).

One of the first ships to be seen this day as we entered Norfolk just after dawn was being refitted: the USS Abraham Lincoln. They are prepping her for a nuclear reactor overhaul. As massive as this ship is, at the waterline it is only 26' wider and 156' longer than the much older Wisconsin.

At one point on our slow crawl along the Navy base's waterfront, it seemed that all you could see were Navy vessels .

Not every power unit at dockside is a boat. You have to wonder in the Navy's far flung kingdom where these shrink-wrapped locomotives are headed. Certainly the rail line code "EMBX" spray painted on the plastic should be a clue the name of the line but online I couldn't easily match those initials with a rail company.

This is the Arleigh Burke in dry dock. The keel was laid in 1988 and commissioned in 1991. Note the 4 turquoise colored objects being delivered to the ship. These are not high tech electronic devices. They are a gang of four, clean, porta-potties being delivered to the Burke. It makes sense that while in dry dock none of the ship's plumbing would be of use for those working on the ship - hence the periodic removal of the fouled heads with clean ones. I know, more than you ever wanted to know about this crap.

The last vessel is unnamed or at least no numbers have been painted on. The lines of the ship look like the same class of ship as the neighboring Arleigh Burke. This ship has several years ahead of it before it can be commissioned.