Fri 20th Feb: USS Midway

The USS Midway is an aircraft carrier. “She”, as all ships are referred to, was commissioned in September 1945 and named after the WW2 battle of Midway Island in 1942 where the US navy decisively defeated the Japanese. The Midway was retired in 1992 and became a floating museum in 2004.

Here she is- the vessel that is, rather than the dubious looking ‘hello sailor’ type on the sidewalk. And we’ve no time see him perform the hornpipe today; let’s go aboard.

The entrance leads into the hanger deck. It’s huge and seems to run almost the full length and breadth of the ship. Here there are examples of the first aircraft that used the carrier, piston engine WW2 types. This is where we also picked up our audio guides that came included in the very reasonable entrance price.

Following the numbered guide, we proceeded into the ordinary crewmen’s quarters. These looked cramped, to say the least, even though she was the biggest ship in the world for her first 10 years, but a crew of 4,500 takes some accommodating. You’ll note they are triple bunks, with lockers in the middle. There’s hardly room for the traditional pin-ups.

One doesn’t give much thought to crew discipline but with 4,500 vigorous males living in close proximity there have to be in issues. The most severe penalty was prison, called the brig in navy parlance, where offenders would be locked up by order of the captain. There were individual cells and a communal cell, which is the one shown in the photo. The layout of the cell bunks actually gives the prisoners more space than the law abiding seamen when you compare it with the previous photo!

Men are fascinated by big machinery. So I’m transfixed by the anchor chains, 2,000 ft. long and attached to 20 ton anchors. Apparently the noise of the rattling chains was deafening when the anchors were dropped.

Good food was provided for all ranks: self-service for crewmen, and in impressive elegance for the officers. Notice the silver service in the glass cabinet that would have been used for formal occasions. No salt beef and hard tack biscuits for these guys.

The whole purpose of the ship was to provide air strike capability. To that end, some 200 pilots were available to fly the assorted complement of 70 or so planes and helicopters. In the Vietnam War they might have flown this Skyhawk, currently patrolling over the café area. 

The Midway was in service for 47 years, with several major refits along the way. It started as a 45,000 ton ship and ended weighing 69,000 tons. One of the ex-navy guides on the ship said that she ended up being top heavy. I wonder if the captain had to sometimes announce, “Sorry lads, bit of a swell today, so we’ll not be leaving port. We can’t risk capsizing.”

The ship always carried top of the range strike aircraft of the day, finishing with the 1,500 mile per hour Tomcat fighter that featured in the movie Top Gun.

This is the communications room where intelligence was received and messages sent. It looks old fashioned now and probably all of it would fit in a modern laptop computer. This was the nerve centre of the ship as you will have guessed from the nervous figure in the background.

The Operations Room shows the original maps used in planning the first Gulf War. The Midway was the command centre for the military task force so contained an admiral as well as a ship’s captain. 

The admiral and captain occupied similar private accommodation aboard, well up to best hotel standards. They were the only personnel to sleep in ordinary beds. The Admiral’s lounge gives an idea of the sort of comfort afforded.

There were many more areas on the audio tour e.g. kitchens, operating theatre, dentists, laundry, engine room, chapel, briefing rooms and so on, all well laid out and described. It was a full and fascinating day out and a tribute to its creators and to those who now operate the Midway Museum.