[HN Gopher] USS Recruit (1917): The Wooden Dreadnought in Manhat...
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       USS Recruit (1917): The Wooden Dreadnought in Manhattan's Union
       Square
        
       Author : weatherlight
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2023-10-22 04:21 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.warhistoryonline.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.warhistoryonline.com)
        
       | mcpackieh wrote:
       | I love the dazzle camo, it really does make the 'ship' hard to
       | recognize as a ship.
       | 
       | Maybe not effective for it's intended purpose of frustrating the
       | use of optical rangefinders, but it sure looked cool.
        
       | evbogue wrote:
       | Is this real? I've been through Union Square 10,000 times over
       | the past 20 years and never heard mention of it.
        
         | Tommstein wrote:
         | > _"When the First World War came to an end, the USS Recruit
         | stayed put for another two years. However, as Christenson
         | explains, 'By 1920, the United States had the largest Navy in
         | the world in terms of sailors, and there was less of a need for
         | them with the end of World War I.' As such, the ship's flag was
         | lowered on March 16, 1920, and she was decommissioned and
         | dismantled."_
        
           | evbogue wrote:
           | well yes, I assumed it was gone by the time I wandered
           | through Union Square. I just feel like I should have seen a
           | memo printed into metal about it at some point during my
           | journeys.
        
         | thisismyaccoun7 wrote:
         | Nope. Its successor is still in San Diego though
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Recruit_(TDE-1)
        
           | mcpackieh wrote:
           | There's a somewhat similar sort of thing in New Jersey for
           | development/training (not recruiting afaik), basically a
           | warehouse with the superstructure of a cruiser/destroyer
           | sitting on top of it:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Rancocas
        
           | thatfunkymunki wrote:
           | You sure about that?
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Recruit_(1917)
        
             | evbogue wrote:
             | Wow! You can see Barnes and Noble from that photo. Never
             | knew about it, now I know.
        
             | psunavy03 wrote:
             | I don't think you read the linked article. Yes, there have
             | been several "USS Recruits" at various bases which have
             | hosted Navy boot camps over the years. One is in San Diego
             | at Liberty Station, a mixed-use development which used to
             | be Naval Training Center San Diego and is now anchored by a
             | Stone brewpub.
             | 
             | Source: I served in San Diego in the reserves, did
             | detachments there while on active duty, quaffed quite a few
             | pints at said Stone brewpub, and have walked around the
             | "ship."
        
               | lostlogin wrote:
               | I'm confused. Are you saying the NY ship did, or didn't
               | exist?
        
               | slyall wrote:
               | They both existed. The New York one is completely gone.
               | The San Diego one still physically exists as a museum
               | "ship".
        
           | marcellus23 wrote:
           | > Nope.
           | 
           | I'm guessing you just misinterpreted the parent's comment --
           | you didn't intend to mean that it's not real, right?
        
             | pimlottc wrote:
             | I think they meant it's not there anymore.
        
           | Animats wrote:
           | The successor to that one is the USS Trayer. It's at Great
           | Lakes Naval Training Center. It's a 2/3 scale Navy destroyer,
           | indoors, in a water tank alongside a pier. It's not just a
           | mockup; it's a large-scale simulator, and most of the
           | equipment works. New Navy recruits go through a 12-hour
           | training exercise on the ship, called "Battle Stations 21".
           | The Navy doesn't give out full details, but fire and flooding
           | are involved.
        
             | Freak_NL wrote:
             | At  2/3  scale, does that mean taller seamen are going to
             | find things a bit cramped?
        
         | simmerup wrote:
         | There are so many photos of it in the article...
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | "was only there for three years" a century ago.
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-23 09:00 UTC)