ANOTHER SHIP IN PORT In January, 1983 the USS Kittiwake paid a visit to the Port of Corpus Christi, and tied up at Cargo Dock 1 (one thing that I miss is the absence of this dock.....saw many historic ships there over the years). The Kittiwake was a U.S. Navy Submarine Rescue Vessel launched in July 1945 and in service until September 1994 when it was decommissioned and joined the reserve fleet until February, 2010. In 1986, it was the Kittiwake that located and recovered the black box of the Space Shuttle Challenger after the explosion. On January 5, 2011 she was sunk off the Cayman Islands and has become one of the most popular dive sites for tourists. I took the photos below on January 23, 1983. I wondered why I did not have photos aboard the ship and checked my journal for that day. I discovered that I did not get down to the dock until 4:15 after having to wait on my 3 year old son to wake up from a nap...I had promised to take him down to see the ship. We arrived 15 minutes after the last public tours were allowed on board. We ended up going over the bridge to North Beach....from where I took the second photo. I took photos instead that day of the massive cleanup and clearing of North Beach that was still going on after the destruction caused by Hurricane Allen in August, 1980 (that hurricane marked a turning point for a North Beach that had become a rundown slum by that time....more on that in a later post).
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 15:39:14 +0000
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