Markers of History

Colonial Parkway mark­ers
Naval Weapons Station

Location: Colonial National Historic Pkwy, Yorktown, VA 23691

Visited: July 4, 2009, 11:55am

Transcription of marker: The piers extend­ing into the York River, just to the right, serve a major Navy instal­la­tion. Since its estab­lish­ment in 1918, then as a Mine Depot, it has served our coun­try in two World Wars and the Korean con­flict as well as in peace time.

My impres­sions: Not a whole lot to say about this, but it does always sur­prise me when his­toric sites and mark­ers are in close prox­im­ity to mil­i­tary areas. I made a def­i­nite deci­sion to forego any attempt at a photo of the sign and its sub­ject, given that. But that history/military com­bi­na­tion seems to come up a lot for the Colonial NHP. Not only does it hap­pen here along the Colonial Parkway, but also at the Cape Henry Memorial in Virginia Beach.

And now, the last of the USS Wisconsin mark­ers. After this post, the blog’s going to take a day or two off. Next week, I should fin­ish post­ing the Town Point Park pho­tos and move on to the mark­ers my wife and I found on the Fourth of July. I also hope to write another essay post which will likely appear Sunday or Monday on this blog. Have a great week­end, everybody!

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: Berthed in Norfolk, the Homeport of Naval History

Location: Foot of Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:20pm

Transcription of marker: Redefining the sky­line of down­town Norfolk, bat­tle­ship Wisconsin stands sto­ically with dom­i­nat­ing pres­ence. After months of dredg­ing and con­struc­tion, Wisconsin majes­ti­cally slipped into the seem­ingly tai­lored berth with­out a hitch on 7 December 2000 – fifty-seven years after the war­ship was orig­i­nally launched. Berthing the 45,000 ton, 887.3 foot long and 108 foot wide bat­tle­ship was a major feat of engi­neer­ing. The waters of the Elizabeth River around Nauticus are extremely shal­low for the 37 foot deep draft of Wisconsin. Varying tidal and weather con­di­tions fur­ther com­pli­cated the berthing facil­ity design. Working in con­junc­tion with City of Norfolk and U.S. Navy plan­ners, archi­tects from the Norfolk-based firm Glenn & Sadler designed the chan­nel and berthing facil­ity next to Nauticus. Chained securely for hur­ri­cane force winds, Wisconsin presently floats on the water at an aver­age of two to four feet above the bot­tom. This marker made pos­si­ble by a gift from Glenn & Sadler, a Division of Transystems Corporation.

My impres­sions: I’m a lit­tle under­whelmed by this marker. Rather than the his­tory of the ship, it focuses on how it came to be where it is, but doesn’t draw fur­ther back than a decade. It is also the last sen­tence that both­ers me. This is the only Cannonball Trail sign I’ve seen to date that includes a spon­sor­ship mes­sage. I might be OK with it, were the com­pany donat­ing it not also men­tioned in the marker text. It almost makes me won­der whether the first men­tion of Glenn & Sadler was war­ranted or a mat­ter of reward­ing a donor in some way. I mean, I’ve never heard of Glenn & Sadler other than from this marker, but there is a per­cep­tion prob­lem, I think, when one rec­og­nizes a con­tri­bu­tion made by some­body who spon­sors the marker (and, pre­sum­ably in this case, requires their name to be rec­og­nized as a spon­sor). It dimin­ishes the cred­i­bil­ity of the marker text and makes me less inclined to trust it with­out fur­ther research.

Setting that aside, the pres­ence of Wisconsin on the water­front is another of those things that indi­cate that I’m not a long-timer here. Even though it’s been there less than a decade, it is another of those things (like Town Point Park) which define down­town Norfolk in my mind.

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: A Floating Fortress

Location: Foot of Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:20pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleship Wisconsin and the sister-ships of the Iowa Class arguably hold a sym­bolic sta­tus as mon­u­ments in naval sur­face war­ship design. Unlike tor­pedo boats, tin-can destroy­ers, flat-top air­craft car­ri­ers, and pig-boat sub­marines, the teak decks and tow­er­ing masts of Wisconsin have per­ceiv­able design con­nec­tions to a bygone era of romance, glory, and naval lore. In the great Nelsonian line-of-battle tra­di­tion, the Wisconsin sil­hou­ette fea­tures vis­i­ble ele­ments of armored big-gun fire­power and ele­gant lines.

Formally placed into U.S. Navy com­mis­sion on 16 April 1944, the blue­jack­ets and offi­cers of Wisconsin shared a com­mon and unique bond as bat­tle­ship sailors-serving aboard a ves­sel that was dis­tinc­tively impor­tant to the fleet. Following cen­turies of naval tra­di­tion and sur­face war­ship devel­op­ment, Wisconsin is for­mi­da­bly armed with a main bat­tery of three 16″/50 gun tur­rets and a sec­ondary bat­tery of five duo-purpose 5″/38 gun mounts. Accommodating var­i­ous types of air­craft, the decks of the Wisconsin once bris­tled with numer­ous anti­air­craft gun mounts in World War II, the Korean War, and through­out the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the Wisconsin crew coor­di­nated the first Tomahawk mis­sile strikes against Iraq using con­tem­po­rary com­mu­ni­ca­tions and intel­li­gence gath­er­ing equipment.

My impres­sions: This marker does a good job of plac­ing the Wisconsin in con­text for peo­ple, like me, who don’t know all that much about war­ships and their his­tory or design. That said, I won­der if this is “too much of a good thing,” hav­ing three mark­ers of the same series beside the USS Wisconsin. I guess it helps keep one walk­ing along the Cannonball Trail, but three mark­ers so close to each other on one ship…some of this felt rep­e­ti­tious after the marker I posted last night…and we still haven’t got­ten to the third marker; that will come later tonight.

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

This is the first of three mark­ers related to the Battleship Wisconsin all found along­side the ship beside Nauticus on the Norfolk water­front. The remain­ing two Wisconsin mark­ers will appear on the blog tomorrow.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: BB-9 and BB-64 in the Homeport of Naval History

Location: Alongside the USS Wisconsin, at the foot of Plume St, next to Nauticus, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:15pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleships bear­ing the name Wisconsin have graced the waters off Norfolk and Hampton Roads since the begin­ning of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury. Ornately designed to show-off the “Stars and Stripes” of the United States, the first bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-9) was com­mis­sioned in 1901. John Philip Souza and the United States Marine Corps Band once per­formed patri­otic marches from the wooden decks of the first Wisconsin. In 1906, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt trav­eled to Norfolk with many other Americans to bid farewell to the first Wisconsin sail­ing on a two year voy­age around the world with the famed “Great White Fleet.” Serving pri­mar­ily as a Midshipman train­ing ship dur­ing World War I, the first Wisconsin was scrapped in 1922.

During World War II, the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-64) was com­mis­sioned under the com­mand of U.S. Navy Captain Earl E. Stone. Born in the “Badger State” of Wisconsin, Stone ear­lier served as a Naval Academy Midshipman aboard the first bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-9). Surviving the Imperial Japanese strikes at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Stone had a key role in orga­niz­ing the war-winning com­mu­ni­ca­tions intel­li­gence efforts of the U.S. Navy. For a job well done, he received the highly cov­eted appoint­ment to com­mand the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-64) in the spring 1944.

Sailing into the embat­tled waters of the Pacific, the crew of the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin earned five bat­tle stars dur­ing World War II. Home-ported at Pier 7 on Norfolk Naval Base, the sec­ond Wisconsin earned another bat­tle star in the Korean War and, sim­i­lar to the first Wisconsin (BB-9), served pri­mar­ily as a Midshipman train­ing ship dur­ing the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the crew of Wisconsin (BB-64) coor­di­nated the first Tomahawk mis­sile strikes against Iraq.

My impres­sions: One of my first trips around the area after I moved down here was to go to see USS Wisconsin. It is cer­tainly an impres­sive sight to walk down the street and all of a sud­den see it once you’ve walked through the gates in front of it. And it is inter­est­ing how they wove together the his­tory of the two Wisconsins on this marker (though the repeated spec­i­fi­ca­tions of BB-9 and BB-64 through the text grew tire­some, espe­cially since the descrip­tions of first or sec­ond Wisconsin were quite clear already).

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.