Author: Geoffrey Cole

Born 1945, joined RANC 1961, graduated 1964. Trained as a Supply Officer and retired in 2000.

Maritime, St Petersburg

Russian Maritime Museum, St Petersburg  The Dvortsovy Bridge crosses the Neva River from the Admiralty and Hermitage. Near the bridge’s end, is the first of two red Rostral Columns. The Central Naval Museum entrance and another Rostral Column lie directly behind the white building in the centre. St Petersburg is filled with architecturally brilliant museums […]

USS Hornet CV-12

USS Hornet CV-12 The West Coast’s USS Hornet, like Intrepid in New York, Yorktown in Charleston and Lexington in Corpus Christi, is one of the 22 WW II-built Essex class carriers. All the museum ships were in the group of 16 Essex class carriers selected for conversion to hurricane bow, strengthened deck, catapults and lifts, […]

USS Lexington CV-16

USS Lexington CV-16 The USS Lexington is a WW II Essex class carrier first commissioned in February, 1943 . She is now rests as a museum at 2914 North Shoreline Blvd, Corpus Christi, Texas. Tokyo Rose christened her the “Blue Ghost” in 1944-45 because, unlike her camouflaged sister ships, she retained her original single-colour blue-grey […]

USS Yorktown CV-10

USS Yorktown CV-10 The USS Yorktown was an Essex class carrier first commissioned on 15 April 1943. This “Fighting Lady”, of novel and movie fame, was the second of her class, renamed from Bon Homme Richard after the third USN ship to bear the Yorktown name (CV 5) was sunk by enemy aircraft and a […]

USS Intrepid CV-11

USS Intrepid CV-11 In 2006, Intrepid was taken to Bayonne, New Jersey, for an extended refit that included hull maintenance and repainting but reported back for museum duty in November 2008. USS Intrepid CV-11 museum and the submarine USS Growler are back at Pier 86, near the bottom of 42nd St, on 12th Av, New […]

USS Midway CV-41

 USS Midway CV-41 USS Midway museum is in downtown San Diego. Australians tend to flog off their old aircraft carriers for scrap. Americans turn them into museums. Who is right? The latest in the ex-USN carrier fleet to join the floating naval aviation museums such as Intrepid in New York, Hornet in San Francisco, Lexington […]

USS Wisconsin BB-64

USS Wisconsin BB-64 American battleship museums or memorials may be found in Utah BB-31, Arizona BB-39 and Missouri BB-63, all in Pearl Harbour; BB35 Texas BB-35 in San Jacinto, TX; Massachusetts BB-59 in Fall River, MA; Alabama BB-60in Mobile, AL; Iowa BB-61 (in California, disposition pending), New Jersey BB-62 in Camden, NJ; and Wisconsin BB-64 […]

805 Squadron, RAN

805 Squadron In a moving ceremony hosted by the Maritime Commander Australia, RADM Geoff Smith AM RAN, and attended by the Chief of Navy VADM David Shackleton AO RAN, 805 Squadron Commanding Officer CMDR A.C.(Tony) Dalton RAN read 805’s new commissioning warrant at 1830, Wednesday 28 February 2001. On the tarmac outside the squadron’s sparkling […]

Angled Deck origins

Origins of the Angled Deck by Digger Bourke The sketch of the proposed US Navy flush deck super carrier in the Naval Officers Club Newsletter 59 of l December, 2004, revived old memories of the original angled deck, or “canted deck” in the USN parlance of the time. In the late 1940s the USN considered it […]

TARCAP in Korea

A TARCAP with Belfast During the Korean War, HMAS Sydney supplied spotter aircraft for TARCAP (Naval Gunfire Support, shore bombardment). Early one day Belfast reported unfriendly fire from the Chinnampo Estuary area, so HMAS Sydney launched a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed “Duckshoot Alpha” Sub Lieutenant in the forenoon of 8 December 1951. Belfast performs a RAS […]

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