Bring Home The USS Adams To Downtown Jacksonville

[thelakelander]

I've actually visited quite a few. You have to dig way more deeper than wikipedia to determine viability. How many of them benefit from having other attractions nearby? How many of them are located in vibrant districts? How many of them pay for themselves? How many of them struggle to stay afloat (at least one since some other city wants to give their's to us)?

USS Yorktown at Patriot's Point in Charleston was one I enjoyed on a tour about 10 years ago. This is what Patriot's Point has had to deal with, despite being in a popular tourism destination:

Allentown, Pa. Gainesville, Fla. Cincinnati, Ohio. Check the zip codes at the USS Yorktown's visitor logbook, and you'll find more out-of-state numbers than 294-anythings.

Jim and Pat Sanders spent a recent Wednesday touring the ship, a focal point of their stop in Charleston during a motorcycle tour from their home in Temple, Texas.

"When we got in that submarine, I said, 'Wow!'" exclaims Jim. "I was too young to be a part of this history, but to see what people sacrificed — what my father and grandfather experienced — I think that's kind of neat."

The submarine is the USS Clamagore, a World War II-era boat that is one of the only surviving diesel subs of its type on display to the public. But from the outside, it looks like it's barely hanging on. Alongside the Yorktown since 1981, the Clamagore exterior has been worn by rust into an unsightly, mangled mess.

Adjacent to the sub, the aircraft carrier rests in 26 feet of mud, a place it has occupied since 1975. Deep in its hull, millions of gallons of water are rusting its bowels from the inside out.

After serving our nation in World War II and Vietnam, the ship retired to Charleston Harbor as the focal point of the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum. It's a source of pride, a beacon of freedom, and, now, an overwhelming reminder of our state's economic woes.

https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/patriots-point-struggles-to-emerge-from-stormy-seas/Content?oid=2463938

The Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum was among a number of military ship museums created across the nation in the 1970s, with little thought about the multi-million dollar repair bills to come. If a boat is a hole in the water into which money is poured, as the saying goes, a steel warship makes for a very big hole.

In September, following Patriots Point's failure to repay $8.2 million to the state in 2015 when a ship-repair loan came due, auditors warned that it was facing "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." To survive, the authority managing the museum and property in Mount Pleasant is hanging its future on a plan to lease a swath of the state-owned waterfront land to Charleston developer Mike Bennett's Patriots Annex LLC.[/img]

Full article: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/patriots-point-s-future-hangs-upon-huge-waterfront-land-development/article_e8d5961a-6b05-11e7-8744-177fe73ff534.html

[thelakelander]

^Update: There's a proposal to turn the USS Clamagore from a floating museum in Charleston into an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. Evidently Patriot's Point couldn't afford the $250k a year to maintain it or the $6 million that was needed in repairs.

https://www.postandcourier.com/business/new-target-date-set-for-hauling-off-submarine-clamagore-to/article_f9cd6434-223e-11e8-bdc9-afe40de1fcee.html

[Adam White]

I don't pretend to know the visitor volumes they projected but if you don't think naval vessels aren't a destination attraction you haven't looked very deep into the subject, nor probably even visited one.  I started to write a list of all of them and their relative location within their host city but it started getting long, so here is a link with all of them listed and you can use GoogleEarth to see the actual location.  I think you will find with a few exceptions, most are in a far more remote location relative to the local town center than the Shipyards is to downtown Jax.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museum_ships_of_the_United_States_military

My point, really, was that a ship sitting by itself with nothing of note around it isn't going to be much of a draw. Downtown Jax is a bit of a ghost town. Get that sorted first and things like ships will make more sense.

[Kerry]

I guess the City made the right choice then.

[Adam White]

I guess the City made the right choice then.

I think so.

[thelakelander]

Or the Navy did. The city never asked for it.

[KenFSU]

The group has found another ship.

The USS Orleck.

It's in Louisiana now, but would be towed to Jax.

They also want to build a Veterans Park adjacent to Berkman II.

Lori Boyer will be meeting with them in the coming weeks.

[Tacachale]

The group has found another ship.

The USS Orleck.

It's in Louisiana now, but would be towed to Jax.

They also want to build a Veterans Park adjacent to Berkman II.

Lori Boyer will be meeting with them in the coming weeks.

This Orleck?

https://www.visitlakecharles.org/listing/uss-orleck-naval-museum/149150/

[heights unknown]

I haven't seen any news on the Orleck moving or coming to Jax; any news or articles out there to support this?

[thelakelander]

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/exclusive-navy-vets-find-new-warship-for-proposed-jacksonville-museum-after-losing-uss-adams/962095783

Was the USS Orleck ever stationed in Jax?

[MusicMan]

Do any Liberty Ships actually remain, you know, like the ones they built at The Shipyards?

[thelakelander]

There are four. Three are museums (two in the US) and the 4th is used as a fish cannery ship.

[acme54321]

Do any Liberty Ships actually remain, you know, like the ones they built at The Shipyards?

One of the four that remains was actually built at the shipyards.  The US government transferred it to Greece in 2009 to be a museum ship.

[Adam White]

This seems like a really bad and (ultimately) expensive idea.

[thelakelander]

Working on a background story on this ship now. Here's an interesting nugget from Lake Charles a year or two ago:

It has been noted by the President of the USS Orleck Naval Museum Board, Mark Boudreaux that a lot of people are no longer interested in going to museums, even less so to museum ships. It's sad that there isn't more interest. I'm not sure, but I think it's just a sign of the times; a sign of today's culture.

In the five years since arriving at Lake Charles, the ship has hosted about 100,000 visitors. But that alone is not enough income to keep up repairs and insurance.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/uss-orleck-naval-museum-board-time-running-salvage-yard-ships-future.html