My father on the pier at Alameda with the Hornet in the background
Memories On A Sister Ship
My father on the pier at Alameda with the Hornet in the background
| In the spring of 1999 my father and I twice visited the
USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California. The Hornet, CV-12, is
an Essex-class sister of the Valley Forge, the aircraft
carrier that my father served aboard as Main Propulsion Assistant.
The Hornet received modifications during her service life that made
her different in many ways from the Valley Forge, most notably the
addition of an angled flight deck and an enclosed bow. In the boiler
rooms, engine rooms, and other engineering spaces, however, the
Hornet remains nearly the same as the ship my father knew.
During our visits my father greatly enjoyed seeing places just like those that he hadn't been in since he stepped off the Valley Forge for the last time 41 years ago. One of my objectives in these visits was to ask my father questions about his life aboard Valley Forge, and by extension about his life in the Navy. He graciously agreed to my tape recording our conversations and his memories, and while I am currently editing those tapes I am hoping to have more opportunities to capture more stories about what he did and how those experiences affected him. Someday soon I hope to have short audio clips from those tapes available from these web pages. My father and I both want to express our sincere gratitude to the people of the USS Hornet Museum Foundation who made our visit to the Main Control station and the forward engine room possible. These generous former Navy men were very supportive of my desire to document my father's experiences and enthusiastic about helping him remember some of the important experiences of his Navy career. There are many more places aboard Hornet that I would like to visit with my father, and I hope that we'll have a chance to do that in the near future. |
Looking up at Hornet's island from the pier
My father points to the place in the wardroom where he was seated for every meal
| Although he shared a small stateroom aboard Valley Forge with another officer, these racks in the Hornet's Marine detachment quarters reminded my father of the rack he slept in aboard the Missouri on his midshipman cruise. |
The Number 1 Main Engine Throttle Board at Main Control.
| My father with his hand on the Number 1 main engine throttle. This main control station is nearly the same as the one that was under his command aboard Valley Forge. |
| The throttle wheel my father is holding in the picture above is connected to the shaft leading from the left edge of this picture to the silver throttle valve assembly. These spring-loaded valves controlled the flow of 600 psi steam into the high pressure turbine, through which the steam passed into the low pressure turbine, and finally into a condenser for return to the boiler. |
| The reduction gear box for the Number 1 main engine. Both the high pressure and low pressure turbine are geared to this reduction gear box, which couples those turbines to one of the ship's four propeller shafts. Note the orange arrow on the sign posted at the aft end of the compartment. The arrow indicates the direction that the propeller shaft turns to move the ship ahead. The shaft, which is far below near the bilge level, can be viewed from the control panel by looking at the angled mirror mounted above the sign. |
Here I am, the author of these web pages- my dad took this picture of me down in Hornet's engine room.
| My father in the small, acoustically insulated communication booth located in the engine room. Engine room noise made communication with the rest of the ship difficult, and this booth was one way of working around that problem. |
| My father stands in the entrance to the escape trunk down on the lower level of the engine room. In the event of battle damage or fire that prevented egress through the upper level of the engine room, this escape trunk was the only way out of this space far below the water line. |
Copyright 2003, Ian E. Abbott
Photo credits: William B. Abbott III, Ian E. Abbott