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 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 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 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 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 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 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 […]

Sea Fury: Australian War Memorial The RAN Hawker Sea Fury Mk11, airframe number VW232, side number 109, on display in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, has an interesting history. Although painted in 805 Squadron Korean War colours and sporting repairs consistent with possible ground fire, other evidence points to it never having served in Korea. […]

National Museum, Canberra The National Museum’s architecture is outstanding. It was with some trepidation that this reviewer recently joined the half million or so annual visitors to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, but it was an experience not to be forgotten. Opened in 2001, the museum’s breathtaking architecture, on the shores of Lake Burley […]