TimeOut

cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
20933

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Currently as museum, but …

Designed to be a two-thirds scale replica of a destroyer escort, her construction began in 1949. That same year, the Recruit was commissioned by Rear Admiral Wilder D. Baker.

"Sailing" on a sea of concrete at the Naval Training Center, she assisted with the training of over 50,000 new recruits per year, providing an education in the fundamentals of shipboard drills and procedures, using standard deck and bridge gear like that found on all naval vessels, including lifelines, accommodation ladders, signal halyards, searchlights, the engine order telegraph and the helm.

Below decks, the ship had six classrooms where recruits were trained, and adjacent to the ship were barracks where those recruits would be housed when not standing watches aboard the Recruit. Also below decks was a gas chamber where recruits were exposed to a diluted form of tear gas to know first hand of its effects.

Due to her landlocked status, Recruit lacked an engine or screw, and therefore was affectionately nicknamed the "USS Neversail."




Mrs C & the Recruit; she used help teach sailors to swim at the pool nearby; they were thrown in fully-dressed as if the ship were sinking, and many couldn’t get their heads above water!

In 1954, Recruit was modified from her original configuration. Reflecting her dual identity as both a ship and a building, she was also known as Building 430, located on Geary Drive between Evans and Chauncey roads.

Recruit was decommissioned in March 1967, due to the inability to classify the unique ship in a computerized registry of Navy vessels. She was later reconditioned in 1982, and refurbished to look like an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate; this reconditioning extended the ship's length to 233 feet. That same year she was recommissioned.

Commissioned or otherwise, she served continuously as a training facility from her construction in 1949 until the base was closed in 1997. Redevelopment of the base began in the early 2000s; now called Liberty Station.

Some info from Wikipedia