In a bit of a nautical mood at present so thought it would be interesting and perhaps a good resource to see what vessels - from Dunkirk's little ships to MTBs and HSLs to preserved merchants to Liberty ships to major combatants - have survived and are still earning their keep or are preserved. I think we might be surprised with what we may find.
I'll start with perhaps the most famous survivors - perhaps because of their long post-war careers: Welcome to HMS Belfast, a unique 20th century cruiser Home | USS Missouri The Midway :: San Diego's Aircraft Carrier Museum USS Texas - awesome overhead shot USS Iowa USS Wisconsin Association Battleship New Jersey Historical Museum Society HMS RAME HEAD - SBS Training Museumschip Hudson SS American Victory Mariner’s Memorial and Museum Ship Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide - USCGC Bramble http://www.ssjeremiahobrien.com/ Project Liberty Ship Welcome Aboard* SS Lane Victory WW II Supply Ship Museum LA Harbor SS Red Oak Victory - Home Page Actually, this is a good list, but you have to pick the WWII stuff out! Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide - Ships by Type
Not one that pops into your head straight away: Long Beach Hotel Queen Mary | Attractions | Special Events Center | The Queen Mary in Long Beach, Ca
The thing is in Scotland at least, in many of the harbours dotted around the coast is former WW2 MTB's which were converted to act as armoured targets and lay moored off jetty! the ones in Troon, were moored alongside and so you climb all over them!
Andy, H.M.S.Fencer survived untill about 1976. She was returned to the USA in1946 and sold to an Italian shipping line, who converted her into a pasenger ship and later named SS Sydney on the migrant run to Sydney.Not bad for a wartime ship. douglas.birch
HMS Cavalier, the last British WW2 destroyer, is preserved at Chatham Dockyard Museum. She is on the Visitors Guide website that you mention. But one that is not is the Frigate HMS Whimbrel, currently in Egypt but hopefully to come back here. HMS Whimbrel (1942-49) Battle of the Atlantic Memorial Project And there is the Sloop HMS Wellington, now HQ of the Company of Master Mariners, moored at the Thames Embankment. The Wellington Trust, HQS Wellington
They sure were work horses. 13,000 hours under way on sea service and 117,000 miles and she wasn't commissioned until June 1942.
AR, excellent re Cavalier, thanks mate. Was trying to remember Whimbrel - that's still exciting. I think Wellington was the one I mentioned Kitty had talked about previously.
MTB 102 MTB 102 Dunkirk and the prelude to D-Day. I've sailed aboard 102, the experience is unforgettable, particularly when the bow rises leaving harbour.
Did you get this one Andy ?? .... though these aren't quite surviving vessels now ! Aircraft Carrier Survivors 2001. Preserved Ship Database of the Fleet Air Arm Archive 1939-1945 Annie
Great thread I must say GREAT THREAD!!!! this has answered my question and I didn"t have to ask it.:clapping:
