Surviving World War Two Ships

m0rris · Surviving World War Two Ships

Hello All,
I am slowly becoming more and more attracted to naval history and the other parts that come with it, i.e. a growing wallet pain as I move towards hmcs snowberry.
I hope this isn't out of place but I was wonderingif we could make a list of surviving (intact and not on the sea floor) ships from world war two?
To start it off;
HMS Belfast and HMS Whimbrel....
m0rris

James Russell

There are some grand old WW2 ships around the world - I live about 7 miles away from USS New Jersey, tied up at Camden, New Jersey, USA. The Philadelphia Navy Yard has a mothball fleet of late WW2, Korean War, and Vietnam ships that I can't imagine being of any use in the future - but a ship modeller's paradise.

You are likely interested in British stuff.

HMCS Sackville, K181, a Flower Class corvette, may be found in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is painted in white and steel blue. Bits and pieces were scrounged from all over the world to make her as authentic as possible. Much of her, above the main deck level, is mattress and plywood - makes you think. Definitely worth a visit if you are going to be within 500 miles! You can see a few pictures of her here:
http://www.hmcssackville-cnmt.ns.ca/

HMS Cavalier, D73, a late war fleet destroyer, is at Chatham.

LCT (3) 7074, Birkenhead.

Check this list against your postcode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museum_ships

VMA131Marine

There are quite a few in the US

Alabama (BB-60)
Massachusetts (BB-59)
North Carolina (BB-55)
Iowa (BB-61)
New Jersey (BB-62)
Missouri (BB-63)
Wisconsin (BB-64)
Yorktown (CV-10)
Intrepid (CV-11)
Hornet (CV-12)
Lexington (CV-16)
Cassin Young (DD-793), Fletcher Class
The Sullivans (DD-537), Fletcher Class
Kidd (DD-661), Fletcher Class
Laffey (DD-724), Allen M Sumner Class
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD-850), Gearing Class
Orleck (DD-886), Gearing Class

wookie

HMS CAVALIER - Chatham historic dockyard
HMS RAME HEAD - still in use in Portsmouth Naval Base for SBS training
Monitor M33 (later HMS MINERVA) - dry dock Portsmouth historic dockyard

HMS VENERABLE (now ARA VIENTECINCO DE MAYO but beached in India awaiting scrapping)
HMS VENGEANCE (now BNS MINAS GERAIS but beached in India awaiting scrapping)

ASR 10 (RAF Air Sea Rescue launch) (nautical museum somewhere in Scotland)
An MTB moored in the Hamble is use as a house boat
and I think 10 of the Dunkirk "little ships"

If you count ships laid down in WW2 but not completed until after the end of hostilities then you can include:

HMS HERMES (now INS VIRAAT)
HMS HERCULES (noe INS VIKRANT)

And if you include overseas warships then add the following which are all known to be in museums or awaiting preservation:

HMAS WHYALLA (near Melbourne)
HMCS (later CSS) ACADIA (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax)
HMCS HAIDA (Hamilton Ontario)
HMCS SACKVILLE (Canadian Naval Memorial, Halifax)
USS HORNET (Alameda California)
USS MIDWAY (San Diego California)
USS INTREPID (Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Manhattan NY)
USS LEXINGTON (Corpus Christi Texas)
USS ORISKANY (Oriskany New York)
USS YORKTOWN (Charlston, S Carolina)
USS NORTH CAROLINA (Wilmington N Carolina)
USS IOWA (Suisan Bay, California, awaiting preservation)
USS MISSOURI (Pearl Harbour)
USS NEW JERSEY (Camden New Jersey)
USS WISCONSIN (Norfolk Virginia)
S.S. JOHN W BROWN (liberty ship now used as historic cruise liner!)
U-505 (Chicago Museum of Science)
U-534 (Merseyside)
U-995 (Laboe Naval Memorial)
U-2540 (Bermerhaven Naval Museum)

and they're just the one's I know about!
(Edited to add sorry about the duplication - the posts above appeared while I was typing this!)

John the Confused

There is HMS Caroline in Belfast
There is Georgios Averof somewhere in Greece.

m0rris

It appears the vengence is no longer beached but is now represented in household items!
Anyways, the list is going well! There is also HMS Stalker in prtsmouth awaiing scrapping shes the last brit designed lst in existance!
m0rris

DavidH

I think that the USS Oriskany was sunk as an artificial reef a couple of years back?

dancho

Subs!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_submarine_museums

feanor

gerry

Perhaps something requisitioned is taking it a bit far to be included in the list of 'navy', but this is a wartime vessel in which you can still take a ride. It's called the Bristol Queen, moored at Weston super Mare.
http://www.bristolqueen.com/bqframeset.html

feanor

Ayup Gerry...

Lovely Site !

I like them when they're musical, 'Blow the man down' is quite cheery on a dull morning like this one is. mind you, after 4 or 5 times, i looked for the 'mute' button; but lovely all the same...

m0rris

For those maybe/probably not interested, I have put my £10 deposit on the corvette so it is no officially mine (and will be properly when I finally pay up completely!)!
m0rris

gerry

This has been on the local news today - The Medway Queen, a paddle steamer that was used in the Dunkirk evacuations. It is going to be restored in a Bristol shipyard (yes, there is still one).
http://www.medwayqueen.com/

Brews

I was on the Missourri last week

m0rris

Does anyone know what happened to the river class frigate used for fire crew training at cherbourg in the end?
m0rris

gerry

Somewhere in the middle of a traffic roundabout between Shoreham and Bognor, there is a small landing craft as an ornamental object that looks as if it has some vintage. It's obviously a bit difficult to get at! I passed it by accident last year - someone from the area will know more about it.

RogerP · Surviving World War Two Ships

Hello from 'downunder',

Out 'ere in the colonies we have --

HMAS Castlemaine, a 'Bathurst' class Corvette located in Melbourne (Williamstown).

The "Krait", used to raid Singapore in 1943, now located in Sydney.

There are probably other larger ships around OZ, but my main interest is 'little ships' and here we have --

MV Rushcutter, the ex RAN 80' HDML 1321 which saw extensive service with the AIB in support of the coastwatcher organisation along with the abortive Op Copper, the 1945 Commando raid on Muschu Island. Rushcutter is now located in Darwin.

MV Mako (pronounced Marko), the ex RNZN 72' (normal length) HDML 1183 now located in Geelong, outside Melbourne.

AH 1733, an ex Aust Army hospital launch built in Tasmania on an 80' HDML hull and now located on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

You can see other HDML type boats still afloat around the world on this site --

http://www.hmsmedusa.org.uk/survivors_list.html

Cheers,
Roger Pearson.
Bendigo, Australia.

Graham Hall

Not far from me are the Caloosahatchee, Canisteo, Canopus and Compass Island. All US supply ships built during WW2, however they are in Hartlepool (Graythorp to be exact) to be recycled. Within the next couple of weeks the yard is due to receive the French post war aircraft carrier Clemenceau (Le Clem) but again this will be cut up at some point.

The 4 US ships are known as the "Ghost ships" and have led to just a little bit of controversy since they arrived.

A little bit of digging on t'internet provides the following dates.

USS Caloosahatchee launched 02/06/1945

USS Canisteo 02/07/1945

USS Canopus 04/11/1965

USS Compass Island (originally Garden Mariner) 24/10/1956, commisioned in the U S Navy on 02/12/1956.

So 2 are WW2 era ships (if only just) and 2 are not.

XN923

When I was involved with the 4th Dovercourt Sea Scout Group, we entertained a Dutch Sea Scout Group whose HQ was a restored WW2 (or possibly just postwar) minesweeper. They rescued it from a scrapyard while it still had two of its engines and when they could afford enough fuel (some of it scrounged from soon to be scrapped vessels from the same scrapyard) they sailed it across the North Sea to Harwich, then up the Thames where they tied up alongside HMS Belfast for a while. Can't remember the name of the scout group or the ship without checking, but thought it made a nice story. Its permanent berth is moored on a canal somewhere near Haarlem. More details when I can dig them out.

m0rris