A Day on the USS Abraham Lincoln 5/10

On April 16, 2009, I was welcomed as a guest aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, to which my brother is assigned. There were other guests for this Family Day Cruise, also called a Tiger Cruise. The ship was moored in Everett, WA and is now in Bremerton for a "tune-up" before its next deployment. The first picture was taken of the Abe Lincoln as it moved through Puget Sound the day after the Cruise. More on that in another post.

My brother Seth said that about half of the crew had guests on board. He was able to stay with me for the whole cruise and had to leave only briefly, first thing in the morning, to muster. He showed me many things on the ship, patiently taking me to wherever I asked to go (Flight Deck again, please?). From here I will let the pictures and video tell the story!

This orange placard gives basic information for the ship. You can visit its official site by clicking here. The site contains some very interesting information about the Abe Lincoln. Each visitor was issued a pamphlet upon boarding. The pamphlet said, "For most of you, the ship is a new environment, filled with surprises and excitement. However, ABRAHAM LINCOLN is a warship, and as such, contains many unexpected hazards to someone not accustomed to its ways. To ensure your visit is not ruined by a needless injury, please follow these guidelines ... ""Don't step on door edges: if you step on the raised bottom edge on many doorways, you are likely to hit your head on the top edge of the entry."

"Do not turn any knobs, valves, switches, or pull any pins."

"Don't lean on life lines: Lifelines are visible barriers that remind us not to get too close to the side of the ship. However, they are not intended to serve as a resting place for the elbows or body while you watch the sea or coastal scenery. Lifelines are designed to warn adults of danger. Adults need to keep a good grip on their small children when close to the side of the ship."The good news is that if you lean on one of those lifelines and it does indeed give way, there are nets along the edge of the flight deck to catch you. Or, if you're a Skittle, you could jump out of the way of an aircraft without diving into the ocean!
The passageways look like reflections in a mirror but there really are doors as far as I could see! Flat Stanley measured in at a little over 8 inches in the physical fitness room. On his first visit to that room, he ran on the treadmill.

These Harbor Seals were resting on the floating parts of the water fence. I hadn't seen wild seals before! Seth looks out over the water. It is about 5:00 in the morning, maybe 6:00, and we haven't yet left port.

This is a view of the control tower and an aircraft on the flight deck.

72 is the identification number for the USS Abe Lincoln. When we boarded at 4:30 in the morning, the number was lit up in red, white, and blue.

Seth held Flat Stanley in front of the plane. This is Flat Stanley's second visit to the USS Abe Lincoln! To read about his first visit, click here. This Destroyer was moored next to the Abe Lincoln.
This video shows the Hangar Bay doors opening and a neat view on the other side. Holy cow, I thought that was a wall until it began to open! Most stairs looked like this.

This is Seth's rack in the Male Berthing. If you didn't appreciate sailors before now, you've got to appreciate them simply for the size of the bed that they sleep in! When he went through the doorway, he stopped me, raised his voice, and called out, "Female on deck!"

Seth took me to the aft-most door on the ship. We looked through a small window in the door and watched the water churn over the propellers. He said that while at sea when the ocean is a little rough, waves splash high enough to cover this little deck and the door that we're looking through.

This is a view of the water from the aft of the ship. We were on a deck overlooking the water. It made my knees weak. The churning you see is from the propellers.

We were escorted by two Coast Guard ships. They stayed with us for the duration of the cruise.

This is the anchor chain. There is 1082 feet--308,000 pounds--of chain. My foot is in for scale. Each link weighs 385 pounds. Flat Stanley peeks out of a stairway. People fit through it too!

This is a view of part of the Hangar Bay. This is where the activities were centered. Meals were served here and the band played here twice. There were activities for the kids and displays for visitors. It was huge. Even after 12 hours on the ship, I still couldn't find my way around this one room without help!

As we were sailing in Puget Sound, there were mountains visible during most of our voyage.

This Submarine was accompanied by two boats which were helping to steer it. Large vessels cannot control themselves well when they are traveling slowly which they have to do while in port.

This is a Trident submarine which was coming into port at the time that we were leaving port. We were lucky enough to see it again when we returned to port; we were traveling faster than it was. This is what the sub looks like when it is at the surface. It didn't seem very large to me but Seth showed this illustration below (from Wikipedia), of what it looks like; we had seen only a small sliver of its top!

This picture was taken in the hangar bay. There were always people watching through the three or four doors which were open. The mountains were almost always visible on one side of the ship. We were traveling through Puget Sound.

At one time, the pilot flew over rather than touching. After the touch-and-go demonstration, the pilots did a fly over. One broke the sound barrier above us. I saw the poof of cloud briefly and heard a small crack (I still had my ear plugs in).

A Navy Prowler touches on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Some of you have already seen this video. If you choose only one video from this post to watch, let it be this one!! It shows a Navy plane--a Prowler, I believe--doing a touch-and-go maneuver. He approaches the Abe Lincoln, touches down on the deck, and then punches it to get going again without stopping. It's absolutely amazing. When the pilot pushes the engine to "go," the vibration and noise gets even more intense. It's breath-taking ... quite literally! We all had ear protection but it didn't drown out everything. Thank goodness; that was the fun part! I've always been fascinated with the operation of aircraft carriers and on-deck landings and take-offs. I never dreamed that I would see it firsthand! Thank you to my brother Seth and the Navy for this wonderful opportunity! Seth and I are on the flight deck. Seth says that he's not allowed up here very often, if at all. We spent as much time as we could up on the deck; when we were underway (moving), it felt very cold. Our noses, ears, and hands would get numb and then we'd take a break downstairs in the hangar bay or somewhere inside the ship visiting a place that I was curious about. When we warmed up, we'd come back up.

These skid marks were on the deck after the airshow; they weren't there beforehand! The little indented stars that you see in the deck are used to anchor things on the deck and hold them in place. This is the aft side of the ship. You can see the trail behind us!

Many stairs were ladders at an angle which could be descended as if they were stairs (with a good grip). Some were just plain ladders. Seth showed this opening to me. I could see down at least five levels but couldn't do it justice with a camera. It appears that there are mirrors reflecting each portle but really there are many.

The surface of the hangar bay and the flight deck are extremely rough. You would NOT want to scrape your knees on this. The safety pamphlet warned us of this. "Never run. Nonskid surfaces on the Hangar Bay and Flight Deck can injure you if you fall. Please supervise children to avoid injuries." No kidding! (The toe of my shoe is pictured for scale.)

These tug boats are coming to help us steer into port. Large ships like aircraft carriers and submarines cannot steer well when they are traveling slowly, as they do in port. They require the aid of tugs to work their way up to dock.

Here, the tug has begun to push gently on the starboard side of the ship. This view is from the flight deck. This is a view of the flight deck from the 6th level of the control tower. Do you see the line of shipping crates across the deck? We stood behind (to the right) of these boxes for the air show. The jets performed their touch-and-go maneuvers to the left. Notice that there are no railings on the flight deck!

This sailor is gauging the position of the ship and reporting it.

This is a view (forward) of the flight deck from the 8th level of the control tower.

These men are pulling the mooring ropes from the ship and putting them around the yellow things called bollards, or cleats.

This video shows the elevators being lowered. They are at the level of the flight deck when raised and when lowered, are at the level of the hangar bay. In this way, planes can be moved from deck to bay and vice-versa.
In this video, Seth names the four sides of the ship: forward, aft, port, and starboard. We're standing on the 8th level of the tower looking toward the "front" of the ship--the wider of the two ends. The stairways, also called ladders, in the ship were very steep. My calves ached for days after the cruise! We climbed dozens and dozens of sets of stairs in the day that I was on board.

After the ship was moored and we disembarked, I stood on the dock next to the ship and marveled at its size. It was like a gigantic building and was too big to capture in one photo.

When the ship is underway (moving), the flag is raised on the rigging by the control tower. When the ship is moored (in port), the flag is on the aft side.

Seth took this photo of me in front of the Abe Lincoln before we left.

This is the aft side of the ship--the back--and you can clearly see Abraham Lincoln painted on its deck.

::

When the captain of the ship addressed us in the morning, he encouraged us to take as many pictures as we could and to share them with others so that people know what's happening on Navy ships--what we have to be proud of! So now I'm following orders!

::

GO NAVY!