As a former Tin Can Sailor, I can tell you that the appellation is very
true. "Aluminum can" is more accurate, as virtually everything above the
main deck was aluminum rather than steel. Wanna feel *really* small? Keep
pace with the USS Enterprise (or similar modern carrier) in a 50's vintage
can while serving as "plane guard". The destroyer stays alongside, only some
50 yards away (if that). Pas de deux at 30 knots with a steel mountain.
---
Scott Gomez
Formerly of DD-931 "Last of the Great Gunships"
On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 16:54, Chuck Norcutt
<chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> The carrier is the Yorktown, commissioned April 1943
> <http://www.patriotspoint.org/exhibits/yorktown/>
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
> On 5/26/2011 10:00 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
> > That must have been terrifying: Kamikaze attacks.
> >
> > Alastair MacLean's stories were great for adolescents, me included, but
> they were always so OTT with the hero's heroism and staying power. However,
> I'd be quite happy to read another one.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > On 26 May 2011, at 12:16, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> >
> >> When in Charleston, SC, years ago, I visited the riverside park where
> they have an old diesel submarine, a WWII destroyer and a WWII aircraft
> carrier. I'm too lazy to look up their names. The destroyer was famous for
> having taken the greatest number of kamikaze hits in the Pacific, and I was
> blown away (oops!) by how small it was. When the sailors called them tin
> cans, they weren't kidding. Don't know how it could have taken one hit and
> stayed afloat, much less multiple.
> >>
> >> One of my favorite books growing up was Alistair Maclean's HMS Ulysses.
> Can't recall it it was a destroyer or a cruiser, though.
>
--
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