Skip to main content

BFE Classic - The USS Independence Anchors In St. Petersburg

This Post was First published on Labor Day Weekend in 2011.  



One of the Navy's newest class of warship stopped in St. Petersburg over the weekend en route to its port city of San Diego, via the Panama Canal.  The USS Independence is a new design of warship that gives it speed, in-shore maneuverability and can function in myriad ways instead of a single-dimension ship.  By that I mean it can launch helicopters, Stryker missiles, jettison SEAL/covert ops teams, offload Humvees and when finished can leave the shore areas at 51 mph.  The Independence is one of the first in a new class of littoral combat ships. It's designed to navigate in shallow areas near coasts. It can be outfitted for several different missions, including mine, submarine or surface warfare.

 That's damn fast for a 418 foot warship.   

Independence is intended as a small assault transport that can take on various capabilities with the installation of mission modules. The ship is a trimaran design that can make more than 40 knots (74 km/h; 51 mph), and was delivered to the Navy at the end of 2009.
Looking at the beast one might think that it has a complement of perhaps 200 sailors, but in actuality, the Independence has 8 officers and 32 seamen.  40 people!  And guess what else, the ship no longer has a wheel like most ships, but is controlled by joysticks.  This ship is one cool looking guy and looks mean as Hell, too. 

The trimaran design is a whole new concept for the Navy and is projected to go more for the smaller more flexible ships rather than the large outmoded ships we are used to seeing.
Anyway, we went to check her out this past weekend and it was totally awesome. Here are some pictures.  Oh, and by the way, the angled sides help mask detection by radar.



                             
 
Notice the trimaran design.  You could actually ride a smaller boat in between the outer and main shells of the ship.





I'd hate to be in charge of replacing the windshield wiper blades.



The Independence is 418 feet long.


This is where they off load anything from trucks, personnel carriers and that rubber-type boat is for amphibious activity.


It can handle 2 Sea Stallion helicopters.






From this angle it looks like Darth Vader.


Port security was aided by two small St. Pete Coast Police boats.  I don't really think anyone wants to mess with this guy.


             It seems quaint to see a Ship's Bell on the most modern ship in the fleet.
Ah, tradition.


                            (The following pictures and video were not taken by me.)






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Statuary In North Straub Park

The Vinoy is not the only park in town.  The place is fairly littered with them, and almost all, except Bum Paradise, are pretty nice.  This is North Straub and they have some old pieces in that seem to have suffered from time and perhaps human folly.     These and some 30 other statues were imported from Italy by local developer C. Perry Snell to help beautify the city.  Mr. Snell was in real estate and during the depression he went on a European shopping trip to collect items for the city.  He obtained these from Italy and installed them in this park even after the bottom fell in the markets.  He fulfilled his obligations at great personal loss to his own company and wealth.  Halso continued to pay his staff during those tough times.  He developed many areas in the city, Vinoy, Snell Isle, Crescent Lake and the beach area down around Fort DeSoto.  He lived from 1869 until 1949 and then buried in Kentucky.  I wo...
Post a Comment
Read more