Chapter One pg 7 The End?
GPS, sitting next to a 1940's ship's
compass...made by a toy train company, during the war! This was quite an
extraordinary ship no matter how you looked at it.
As an aside, I have since discovered, in doing
my research for my "book", on the Christmas Tree Ship and the Mackinaw, that
this ship has also served as a "haunted ship", has been in parades of ships,
and keeps ships moving in the upper Great Lakes, as far over as Duluth, MN,
and has never failed in any of its missions!
Finally, we climbed down the stairs/ladder,
took a few more pictures as we disembarked (is that the right word?) and
finally stepped back on shore, picked up our personal belongings, thanked the
guys on "shore duty" and went back into the noise and shops of Navy Pier.
As one of my many after thoughts, I pondered
that this ship, it appears, it going to be really hard to replace. After
all, what other Coast Guard ship can "wiggle, wobble, chew ice from the bow,
and open up ice that is 3ft thick, without flinching?" Indeed.
The replacement ship, I just discovered, is
being built (and this should not have surprised me) by the Manitowoc Company,
Marine Division at the
Marinette Shipyard! (Click on Current Projects on the top of the page.)
And, it's going to be named the Mackinaw. And it's under construction now.
So, indeed, this is The End of the Christmas
Tree Ship Story II. Now for the Middle.
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