USS Ticonderoga - CV CVA CVS 14 , livre ebook

USS TICONDEROGA
CV-CVA-CVS-14

T URNER P UBLISHING C OMPANY
T URNER P UBLISHING C OMPANY
Copyright 1996
Turner Publishing Company.
All rights reserved.
Publishing Rights: Turner Publishing Company
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of Turner Publishing Company.
Turner Publishing Company Staff:
Editor: Erik Parrent
Designer: Lora Lauder
Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number 96-061908
ISBN: 978-1-56311-258-4
Additional copies may be purchased directly from Turner Publishing Company.
This publication was compiled using available information. The publisher regrets it cannot assume liability for errors or omissions.


Endsheets: Courtesy of Howard Hoxsie and C. Vern Higman)
Photo this page: Communications Department, To-kyo Bay, September 1945. (Courtesy of George K. Ames)


A four-inch shell through right wing and fuselage exploded above plane Round Trip Ticket on November 11. 1944. It severed two of the four engine mounts and all cockpit instruments. Higman received shrapnel wounds on his right leg. (Courtesy of C.V. Higman)
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
Foreword
Publisher s Message
History of USS Ticonderoga
Sea Stories
Biographies
Index
F OREWORD
Ticonderoga ships and men have established an impressive naval tradition for nearly two centuries. We have only official records of the Ticonderoga men who sailed and fought the earlier ships. In this volume are the vivid memories of those who survive today from World War II to the present.
Love and pride in your ship and fellow shipmates are surely a paramount necessity for a happy and effective crew. Such was the case of carrier Ticonderoga during her twenty-nine years of service. From routine operations to deadly combat with her enemies, the men who manned her performed their duties with the highest courage and professionalism.
Herein are some of their stories as best they remember them including that fateful day in January of 1945 when so many gave their lives for their country. Many more, today, still carry the scars and disabling wounds of the attack and the mental horrors will never leave any of those who were aboard at the time.
The Aegis Cruiser Ticonderoga , operating with our present day fleet, carries on our tradition in this modern day and has made her powerful presence known to those who would challenge our purposes throughout the world.
We, of the carrier Ticonderoga , are sailing with her and her crew in mind and heart as she sallies forth in her quest for peace in a turbulent world.
Charles Chuck Large, M 1/c Plankowner

USS Ticonderoga (Photography by Bruce Trombecky, courtesy of U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Test Center)

USS T ICONDEROGA
T HE B IG T S HIPS T HAT H AVE B ORNE T HE N AME
T ICONDEROGA
A village in Essex County, NY, on La Chute River, 100 miles north of Albany. The name is an Iroquois Indian term which means between two lakes and refers to Lake George and Lake Champlain. Here, the French built a fort called Carillon in 1755, but it was captured four years later by British troops under General Amherst. Early in the American Revolution, on May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the fort from the British. General Sir John Burgoyne recaptured the fort in May 1777, holding it until his surrender at Saratoga, NY on October 17, 1777.
I (Sch: t. 350; 1. 120 ; a. 8 long 12-pdrs., 4 long 18-pdrs., 3 32-pdr. car.)
The first Ticonderoga , a merchant steamer built in 1814 at Vergennes, Vermont, was purchased by the Navy at Lake Champlain and converted to schooner rigging; and relaunched on May 12, 1814.
Ticonderoga rendered gallant service with Captain Thomas Macdonough s squadron during the Battle of Lake Champlain on September 11, 1814. Commanded by Lieutenant Stephen Cassin, Ticonderoga compelled sloop HMS Finch (formerly USS Growler ) to surrender after riddling her with shot and forcing her aground. She also assisted in the capture of sloop HMS Chubb (formerly USS Eagle ), and repelled several boarding attempts by British gunboats. Midshipman Hiram Paulding was on board Ticonderoga during the battle and used his pistol to discharge a cannon when firing matches proved defective. During the two-and-one-half hour engagement, six members of Ticonderoga s crew were killed, and six others were wounded.
After the war, Ticonderoga was laid up at Whitehall, New York. A decade later, she was pronounced unworthy of repair and sold at public sale on July 19, 1925.
II (ScSlp: dp. 2,526; 1. 237 0 ; b. 38 2 ; dr. 17 6 ; a. 11 K.; a. 1 150-pdr., 1 50-pdr. D.r., 6 9 D.sb., 2 24-pdr. how., 2 12-pdr. r., 2 heavy 12-pdr.ab.)
The second Ticonderoga was laid down by the New York Navy Yard in 1861; launched on October 16, 1862; sponsored by Miss Katherine Heaton Offley; and commissioned at New York on May 12, 1863, Commodore J.L. Lardner in command.
Ticonderoga went south on June 5, 1863, for duty as flagship of the West Indies Squadron and, after stopping at Philadelphia, arrived at Cape Haitien on June 12. She patrolled waters off the Virgin Islands, Barbados, Tobago, Trinidad, and Curacao protecting Union commerce. Ticonderoga returned to Philadelphia for repairs in September. She was relieved as flagship of the squadron in October and sent to the Boston Navy Yard.

Jet aircraft departing the flight deck of Ticonderoga. (Courtesy of E. W. Tenpenny)
Operating out of Boston, Ticonderoga searched unsuccessfully off Nova Scotia for the captured steamer Chesapeake from December 11-16. In June 1864, she hunted Confederate commerce raiders off the New England coast, putting into Portland Harbor, Maine, on June 26. There, Ticonderoga received a telegram on July 10 ordering her to track down and destroy the marauding Confederate raider CSS Florida . Her search lasted until October and carried Ticonderoga as far south as Cape San Roque but was stopped because of mechanical troubles and insufficient fuel. She returned to Philadelphia late in October.
Ticonderoga left Philadelphia bound for Hampton Roads, Virginia, on October 31. She was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron on November 4 and deployed off Wilmington, North Carolina. Ticonderoga participated in the first, unsuccessful attempt to take Fort Fisher, North Carolina, on December 24 and 25, losing eight men killed and 20 wounded on the first day of the assault when a 100-pounder Parrott rifle exploded. A landing party from Ticonderoga assisted in the capture of the fort on January 15, 1865.
Ticonderoga joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron on January 19. After a brief tour of duty, she left for Philadelphia in March and was decommissioned there on May 5.
Ticonderoga was recommissioned for service with the European Squadron in 1866. She remained with the Squadron through 1869, visiting ports in the Mediterranean, on the continent, and along the English and African coasts. The vessel was extensively repaired in 1870 and reported for duty with the South Atlantic Squadron at Rio de Janeiro on August 23, 1871. After over two years of service on the coast of South America, she was reassigned to the North Atlantic Squadron in January 1874. The ship was decommissioned at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on October 24 and remained laid up there until 1877.
Ticonderoga was recommissioned on November 5, 1878 and ordered to embark upon a cruise around the world, Commodore Robert W. Shufeldt commanding. The expedition was of a commercial nature, intended to expand existing trade relations and establish new ones. Ticonderoga sailed eastward from Hampton Roads on December 7 and stopped at ports including Madeira, Monrovia, Cape Town, Aden, Bombay, Penang, Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong, Nagasaki, Fusan, Honolulu, and San Francisco. Ticonderoga arrived at Mare Island, California, for extensive repairs on November 9, 1880. during the two year mission, she had visited over 40 ports and steamed in excess of 36,000 miles without a mishap.
She left Mare Island in March 1881 and returned to New York on August 23. She was decommissioned there a final time on September 10, 1882 and declared unfit for further service. Ticonderoga was sold at Boston on August 5, 1887, to Thomas Butler and Co.
III (Id. No. 1958; t. 5,130 (gross); 1. 401.1 ; b.53.2 ; dph. 27.5; dr. 25 6 (mean); s. 11 k.; a. 1 6 , 1 3 )
Camilla Rickmere (spelled Kamilla Rickmere in German), a steamer built in 1914 by Rickmere Aktien Gasellschaft , at Bremerhaven, Germany and operated by Rickmere Raismuhlen Reederei Schiffbau Aktien Gasellschaft , was seized by the United States Customs officials in 1917; turned over to the Navy; fitted out as an animal transport; renamed Ticonderoga ; and commissioned at Boston in the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) on January 5, 1918, Lieutenant Commander James J. Madison, USNRF, in command.
Ticonderoga departed Boston on January 16 and reached Newport News, Virginia, three days later. There, she loaded a cargo of automobiles, trucks, animals, and sundry other Army supplies before moving north to New York City to join a convoy which sailed for France on February 20. Ticonderoga entered port at Brest on March 7 and began discharging her cargo. She completed unloading operations and departed France on the 23rd to return to the United States. She arrived at New York on April 8 and the following day headed for Norfolk, Virginia, to undergo repairs and take on cargo before returning to New York on the 30th.
On May 3, Ticonderoga steamed out of New York Harbor once more, bound for Europe. She reached Brest on May 18 and proceeded southeast along the coast of France to the Gironde estuary where she unloaded her cargo and took on ballast for the return voyage. The transport put to sea on June 10 and entered Hampton Roads 15 days later. Ticonderoga took on another Army shipment at Newport News and joined an east-bound convoy at New York on July 12. She delivered her cargo at the Gironde