Dolphins by the Yorktown

As we walk on the concrete walkway the ship before us get's larger and larger. There is no shade and the sun is oppressively bright. When we look from a distance, the heat warps the light, like it is melting. Had I known then that this was the ship in the Philadelphia Experiment, I might have laughed at the image, but I do not know. So, Shelly the girls and I just walk to get out of the heat, into the cave like interior.

From the walkway, the sheer walls of steel make it look more like building than a decommissioned ship. To be more accurate a decommissioned, recommission and again decommissioned ship. It spent time as an aircraft carrier, then an attack carrier and finally an antisubmarine carrier. She was named for both the Revolutionary war battle and the earlier Yorktown, which was lost at the battle of Midway. Now, though, she is a floating museum.

Just out from under the sun, where we can begin to make out the planes and mannequins, as our eyes readjust, we pay the admission fee. We see a fighter painted with teeth and eyes. We see men in uniform, who might have served on a ship like this. I even see a blue and gold Yorktown hat. It reminds me of the hat Eric once game me while he was serving on the South Carolina. We are surrounded by history, but a history which seems so close you can touch. A single generation of distance.

We walk the main floor circling the aircraft there. The shiny, colored paint reflected back our faces. We marveled at their variety. We saw in our imaginations how they would launch into the air.

From there we went downstairs, where we looked at blocked off rooms, the giant mess hall and plaques about how these spaces were used. Even though the paint was new, you could smell the age. It was like the spirits had been covered with the new.

From there we went up and up and back out into the sun, but this time it was high above the water. You could smell the salt on the breeze. From the steep stairs we walked out onto the runway. There were things to see on the ship up there, but it was the water which had my attention. The churning waves. An ocean that made even this enormous ship seem small. Then, as I looked down, I would see movement just off the side. Eventually, all of us were looking trying to figure out what it was.

When I remember the dolphins breaking the surface of the water, I think one of my kids may have clapped. It was something rare and special for us. So, for the next twenty minutes, until we could see them no more, we stood and watched.