The flight deck crew prepares planes for launch from the USS Lexington (CV-16), en route near New Guinea, early April, 1944
When i was in St Louis in 1997 the Admiral was a casino. I had to wait for "docking". I thought it strange as it never left the dock. From what i was told, it turns out gambling wasn't legal, or they didn't want it on land in MO. Being a federal waterway, ya pulled the gangplank in and so long as it wasn't touching the dock, you were good to go. I don't know if that was true or not, as one of the pics shows a land based casino. I do know it's hard to keep a roll on in blackjack when they are "docking" every 30 minutes(lost a couple hundred I was up. Dealer changed at docking). The boat was later scrapped. The cool art deco interior had been gutted for the run of the mill/over the top, cheap casino decor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Admiral_(1907) https://www.stlmag.com/news/The-SS-Admiral-Makes-its-Last-Voyage/ 1. pic is it as the rail car carrier albatross. it spent from 1907-1939 hauling freight across Mississippi at Vicksburg (at least). Rebuilt in 1939 as Admiral. 2. pic is when it was retired second time. It hadn't sailed since 1979 due to hull issues. It was sold. By the time of this photo, it was retired as a static display/casino.The new company was looking to sell, coast guard ruled the hull was deficient and closed it. It was for sale for a while on e bay for 1.5 million, which isn't bad considering it cost 28 million to convert it to a casino. no one wanted it. 3. is the upper deck hacked off so it can fit under the Eads bridge. Note Land based casino. it was all riverboats in the 1990's. That one is in East St Louis (which is Illinois) 4. is a track hoe with shears having its way. Sad this wasn't saved
M/V Kalakala. Used for decades by Washington State ferries but soon obsolete. Her demise was a sad tale but we cannot save them all. M/V Hyak's horn was salvaged as the goal horn for the Seattle Kraken. Sadly the one game I saw in Climate Pledge Arena they were shut out by the Oilers 3-0 (shakes fist).
Second Lexington carrier, fifth ship to bear the name in navy. It was originally going to be the USS Cabot. Name was changed after the existing carrier with that name was sunk at coral sea may 1942. Both were built at the Fore River ship yard in Quincy Mass. This one survived the war and now resides as a museum in Corpus Christi. Its predecessor was located off the coast of Australia in 2018. F6F Hellcats in front, SB2C Helldivers behind them(note perforated dive flaps start a few rows back). Missing are the TBF Avengers torpedo bombers. They are either out, or below deck. pics. what are the lights on wrecked caddy? the rest are a reminder just how dangerous carriers are. they are all USS Lexington cv-16
The female student on the right is seeing something different and possibly working out her fanatsy of what her man would be.
Crown Fire Coach. This company, located in Los Angeles, started out building wagons for freight in 1904, and then became one of the largest bus manufacturing companies, specializing in school buses. In 1951, they produced their first fire engine. At the time, only American la France built cab forward fire apparatus, but local fire departments in Southern California preferred the Crown apperatus, primarily because each engine could be custom talored for the specific fire department, and also that the equippment did not need to be shipped from back east. It was not long before the Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County fire departments were filling their fire stations with Crown Fire Coaches, from pumpers, ladder trucks, water tenders, etc. Smaller towns and communities in SoCal took notice, and put their names on the Crown Firecoach waiting list (like the town of Downey did). Up through the middle 1960's, almost all the fire engines were open cabs but after the Watts Riots in 1965, closed cap apparatus was the norm. They protected the fire fighters from the rocks and bottles that rained down on them during the riots. Some time in the early 1980's, Crown Coach decided to concentrate on busses and pretty much ended fire apparatus production...
Good eye. Those are dauntless'. The hell diver had a four blade prop, the air scoop on the front of the engine, a break in a much longer canopy that extended almost out to the tail, and internal bomb bay. The two look quite a bit alike, but the ones you can see good are dauntless number 26 and 46 in right row. #46 you can see the yellow band on the external bomb. The bombs have stripes to id what it is. Yellow is high explosive . Red is incendiary, Blue is inert etc. sometimes there would be a number of stripes that would indicate what was in it. Different amts and kinds of explosive for diff tasks. The helldiver was hated by crews. They turned the sb2c into a "Son of a B*tch 2d Class" nickname. This may explain why the dauntless is on a brand new fleet carrier deck almost a year after the helldiver debut. Older models usually went to escort carriers for ground pounding or recon/ anti sub duties. Pics show differences better. Dive bombing was pretty much done after ww2, and the helldiver was the navy's last. The bombs were on a trapeze to place the bomb out of the way of the propeller in a dive. it is visible in 2d pic.
The Jalopy Journal
