TechnoTourist Visits the USS Intrepid

TechnoTourist and family spent a breezy October Saturday exploring the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City. The floating museum consists of the USS Intrepid, the space shuttle Enterprise, the Growler submarine, a Concorde, and numerous military aircraft.

My family has a history with military ships. Both my grandfather and my husband were on aircraft carriers in the US Navy as young men. (You can read about some of my husband's adventures here on CR4!) My grandmother visited my grandfather on his carrier in Narragansett Point, Rhode Island. I've never been on an active ship but did visit the USS Missouri memorial in Hawaii with my grandparents.

USS Intrepid

It seemed only natural that we'd visit a carrier located in what's relatively our backyard. The Intrepid is classified by the city of New York as a museum. Because of the related building codes visitors are only allowed to explore the hangar, flight, and third decks. My grandfather was disappointed he couldn't check out the ship's store like the one he'd worked in but there was still plenty to see!

The Intrepid is an Essex-class aircraft carrier that was built during World War II. It's 872 feet long, can travel at a speed of 33 knots, and can hold a crew of 3,448. The Intrepid was decommissioned on March 15, 1974.

We were able to tour the flight and hangar decks as well as the third deck which contained officers' quarters and a galley. We also visited the fo'c's'le, or forward-most part of the ship, where huge chains hold two 30,000 pound anchors. The museum contains many Naval artifacts, planes, and a space capsule. The Soyuz TMA-t reentry capsule is a three-seat reentry capsule in which American entrepreneur Greg Olson spent 10 days in space.

The Intrepid had several jobs before being turned into a museum in the 1980s:

• Several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations including the Battle of Leyte Gulf
• Recomissioned in the 1950s as an attack carrier and later an antisubmarine carrier serving in the Atlantic and in the Vietnam War
• Recovery ship for Mercury and Gemini space missions

Space Shuttle Enterprise

The relationship with the space program may be why the Intrepid was chosen to house the space shuttle Enterprise. The Enterprise sits just 10 feet off the deck and so it was fun to walk around and examine it. This shuttle was a prototype built in 1976 and did not fly in space.

What looks like a big, gray dome houses the shuttle on the back end of the flight deck. The pavilion is actually a climate-controlled nylon bubble. It was damaged during Hurricane Sandy.

The museum's website has lots of information regarding ticket packages and prices, what you can see at the museum, hours, and directions. The staff is very informative and happy to help you.

View more photos of the Intrepid and the museum on CR4's Facebook page!

Resources:

Huffington Post; Intrepid Museum; NavSource Online; Wikipedia