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A tracking device will be placed
on the ship for it's journey. The trip to
Brownsville will take place in about two weeks. If
you wish to be kept up to date on this, let me know.
We also have a Mispillion Sailors page on facebook
to keep folks up to date.
Steve Dengler
And Another
Story....
Ex-crewmembers watch online as ship
prepped in Vallejo for its sad, final
voyage
By Jessica A. York
Posted: 01/28/2012 01:00:59 AM PST
The reopening of the Mare Island
shipyard has resulted in a local
byproduct beyond industry: Nostalgia and
tearful good-byes.
Shipyard operator Allied Defense
Recycling began leasing two of the
island's dry docks early last year.
Since then, the company has been
besieged not only by job seekers and
curious onlookers, but also former crew
members of the ill-fated ships.
Allied Defense safety officer Suzanne
Castleman met her first group of ship
veterans this month. She took five
former Mispillion crewmen and family
members on a final ship tour.
Or, to be accurate, they took her on a
tour.
"They (served) their service and they
served it well," Castleman said of the
66-year-old ship's former crewmen. "It's
(moving) to see them so emotional about
the ship. ... It's very different to
hear the stories when you're standing on
the ship with them."
Allied completed exterior scrubbing of
the Mispillion this week, before it was
to be towed to Texas for dismantling.
The company competitively bids to
dismantle federally owned "mothball"
ships moored in Suisun Bay, but also
takes on the more quick-moving hull
work.
Between the two types of work, the
shipyard has seen its share of ships and
associated visitors, said General
Manager Gary Whitney. A naval veteran
himself, Whitney recalled interacting
with crews of the Mispillion, which
served as oiler and supply ship to a
destroyer on which he served.
octopus aboard a ship gripping various
items, reads "If we got it, you can have
it."
Employees from a drawer-making factory
across the street from the dry docks,
Western Dovetail, learned that shipyard
onlookers are not all arriving in
person.
On Jan. 19, Western Dovetail's long
ongoing Web feed of the shipyard,
refreshed on the company's website
www.drawer.com
once every minute, temporarily vanished
after an Internet outage.
Company president Max Hunter initially
launched the video as a documentary of
the shipyard's first dismantling, but
noticed that the ongoing footage
continued to draw visitors to the
company website.
Dana Nunes, in charge of Western
Dovetail's customer service and sales,
said she received an email from former
Mispillion "ship's boy" Chris Munson,
asking Western Dovetail to reinstate the
webcam, at least until the Mispillion
work was complete.
"Many of us have enjoyed, and looked
longingly from afar, at the 'Mighty
Miss' as she is cleaned," wrote Munson,
whose father, Henry Munson, was ship's
commander from 1952 to 1953.
"As these are the last days we can see
her, your web cam has brought great
unity and comfort to Mispillion's crew.
We hoped to capture her departure live
from your webcam ... at least for these,
Mispillion's last days with us."
Efforts by Navy veteran Vern Bouwman to
help preserve the Mispillion as a museum
ship proved unsuccessful in November,
when ship caretaker U.S. Maritime
Administration sold the ship to ship
recycler Esco Marine for $1.8 million.
Bouwman said the vessel is the last
World War II-type oiler in existence.
Bouwman runs a website, www.navy.
www.memorieshop.com devoted
to U.S. Navy oiler ships, with a page
for the Mispillion. Also, more
information is available at
www.mispillion.com. |
