What’s the Big Stick, you ask? Well, it’s the Battleship USS Iowa, berthed near here in San Pedro, south of LA and west of Long Beach. Remember, we’re from Iowa and we’ve got to see it. Anyway, I hear that anyone from Iowa gets in free. Oops, we renounced our Iowa citizenship back in September when we became South Dakotans. Oh, well, the money goes for a good cause. The USS Iowa is berthed in San Pedro about 87 miles from our campground but, who knows with the traffic? It could be California driving - fast and quick, or, maybe we’ll see this ahead of us on the freeway and we’ll get to take our sweet time.
Well, it was a bit of both.
Several years ago during our first time driving CA freeways we were stunned to see motorcycles driving between lines of traffic on the white lines. All legal.
We traveled through Long Beach, one of the largest shipping centers in the US and we saw more containers, booms, semis and container ships than I’ve ever seen.
They unload the containers onto semis which then drive off, then they unload the containers from the next batch of semis onto the ship and sail off. It’s as choreographed and as rhythmical as a Disneyland ride.
But, back to the ship. The Iowa was planned in 1938 but not commissioned until 1943. She was called the ‘World’s Greatest Naval Ship’ due to her large guns, accurate fire power systems, heavy armor and speed. She started out in the Atlantic chasing German u-boats but returned to the US to take President Franklin Roosevelt across the Atlantic to meet with Churchill and Stalin then back to WWII, the Korean War and the Cold War. Although she was not chosen for the surrender ceremony of the Japanese after WWII, she was right by the side of the Missouri which was. She was decommissioned, recommissioned and retrofitted with cruise missiles, then decommissioned again but finally in 2011 was donated to the Los Angeles-based non-profit Pacific Battleship Center and was permanently moved to Berth 87 in San Pedro in the summer of 2012. Now, it serves as a museum and a memorial to WWII battleships. They have opened much of it above decks but are continually working below decks to open up more.
Interestingly, it must be kept maintained - in the case of a national emergency. It was one of the fastest and most heavily armed ships and had some of the thickest armor. You can see the 16” guns here on the main deck, where the self-tour begins. There are 9 of these guns, 6 in front and 3 in the rear, though the turrets swivel and the guns can operate individually. By the way, these guns can fire a projectile 26+ miles.
Here’s one of the projectiles with 6 bundles of powder in back of it to project this projectile the requisite 26+ miles.
I read that when it was constructed, there were 1.135,000 rivets and 800 miles of welding. Now, who counted the rivets and measured the welding? There were 5300 electrical fixtures which required 250 miles of wiring. Look at this, how do you tell which wire shorted out?
On our tour we saw the cabin which Roosevelt had. Because he had polio and was in a wheelchair, the doorways were cut so that they were level on the bottom and he could move from one room to another.
A bathtub was also installed for him since he could not use a shower.
Here’s Gary’s type of room on a ship, although his jacket said Moale on the back.
After we explored the Iowa, we jumped back into the car and headed over to the coast to see the Fermin Lighthouse. We got there at 3:15, the sign said that the last tour began at 3:00 but, when I asked if it was too late to join this tour, one of the women in the admissions office said that no one had showed up at 3:00 and that she would give us a shorter tour since it closed at 4:00. Thanks a lot we said and followed her in.
Built in 1874, it was the first navigational light in San Pedro harbor. It is an old stick style Victorian lighthouse. This style was used for 6 other lighthouses built between 1873 and 1874. It’s a lot simpler in design than later Victorian which can be quite elaborate.
One of the most interesting things about this lighthouse was that the first Keepers were two sisters whose father had been a lighthouse keeper in Washington. This area was quite isolated then and they had quite a haul to get food and other supplies.
In another case, when the Keeper and his wife died, their daughters took over and managed the light. Eventually the lighthouse was deactivated when an automated light was installed. At this point, the local citizens raised funds and restored the lighthouse to its original glory, worked to get it placed on the National Register of Historic Places and get it opened as a museum. Volunteers maintain the house and gift shop and lead the tours. They have a wealth of information and take the time to explain it all. There is no fee to visit the lighthouse but, if you do, please give a donation to keep this treasure going.
Then we walked along the beach cliffs for a bit. As I was taking a picture of the Channel Islands a guy walked up and asked if we’d like a picture of us. Looks like a windy day.
We then headed out and - glory be - we hit the rush hour traffic. Here’s our view heading out of LA. Think traffic is fast in LA? Think again - rush hour can be slow. Lots of red lights - lots of cars stopping.
We got back to Menifee in time for dinner - at 7:30: an 87-mile trip and it took us 3 hours. Love that rush hour traffic. We parked in the parking lot and noticed this:
From Bagels to Burgers. You can camp out all day in this parking lot and eat from breakfast to dinner. A blurry picture but it was at 8:00 in a neon-lighted parking lot. Or, maybe I was a bit blurry at this time after a long day.
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