Saving The USS Laffey

If you have read my blog before, you know how strongly I feel about preserving our historical monuments. Therefore, it is with mixed feelings that I read about the South Carolina legislature authorizing a loan of $9.2 million for repairs to the Laffey, "The Ship That Would Not Die".

I am all for saving this gallant warship so that future generations can walk her decks and get a feel for what happened on them and the sacrifices that were made for their freedom. I want them to understand how men fought and died not only to protect their own lives, but the lives of future generations.

However, I still believe that spending that much money on repairs and then dunking that grand old dame right back into the salty harbor water is foolish! In another 10, 15 or 20 years, we are going to be right back in the same spot we are now, the proud owners of an historical warship that is leaking like a sieve through the hundreds of holes in her hull caused by the cumulative effects of spending decades immersed in saltwater! We just cannot keep throwing money at a problem, we have to fix, or eliminate the root cause of the problem. We should not be passing this issue on to future generations with the hope that they will be smart enough to find the solution that escaped us.

In short, WE HAVE TO GET THE LAFFEY OUT OF THE WATER FOR GOOD!!!! How, you say? Sorry, I don't have all the answers, but building a dry dock for her seems like a good idea to me. Whether that will work or not is something for the maritime engineers to figure out. But if it WON'T work, then it is imperative that they find a solution that WILL work. I've heard solutions from dredging the harbor and piling the sand around her until it is above the high water mark to filling her lower decks with concrete up TO the water line. Whatever the solution, we need to find it and use it, now!

Start with the Clamagore, the submarine. It is the smallest of the four ships at Patriot's Point and as such should be the easiest to keep out of the water. Work out some of the kinks and then move on to the next largest vessel and do the same thing. Then the next and finally the Yorktown. Let's get this problem fixed NOW and not pass it on to future generations like our government is so wont to do!!