On this day in 1956, Admiral Farragut's flagship, USS Hartford, sank at the pier in Norfolk, Va.
President Roosevelt had wished to establish a naval history museum at the Washington, DC Navy Yard and had planned to refurbish Hartford, the cruiser Olympia, and a World War I four stacker destroyer. With his death, this project was shelved, and Hartford was left to rot.
An interesting sidenote, was the the guided missile leader, USS Farragut (DLG-6) had a slice of Hartford's bowsprit displayed next to the Captain's cabin. It was a hexagonal piece of wood, maybe ten inches in width and breadth, and had a nice plaque. Oddly, there was a pie shaped slice missing on the top.
This was intriguing, and I couldn't figure out any reason why this notch would be there. It made no sense..
No one in the wardroom had any idea why, it just was always that way.
Knowing that any lore of the ship was kept in the Goat Locker (the CPO mess) I asked the Chief Radioman, Charley Brown. He was a very sharp, loquacious sailor and loved a good sea story.
According to him, during one of the Mediterranean cruises in the 1960s, the ship visited a Spanish port. One of the local grandees was into history, and claimed some relation to Admiral Farragut's spanish forbearers. He was given a tour of the ship and then he invited the captain into his palatial home. During this visit, he and the captain toasted the Admiral at length and got a little tipsy.
Giving the captain a tour of his villa, they were in his wine cellar when the captain stumbled. He knocked over a wine rack loaded with old, valuable bottles of wine.
To make up for this faux pas, the captain rushed back to the ship and had the machine shop cut out the sliver from Hartford's bowsprit. This was presented it to the grandee in apology for breaking all that wine.
I'm sure that the artifact was removed when Farragut was decommissioned in 1989 and is now on display on the Burke class destroyer DDG-99. And probably everyone who sees it wonders, "Why is there a slice missing?"
"These things must be done delicately-- or you hurt the spell." - The Wicked Witch of the West.
"We've got the torpedo damage temporarily shored up, the fires out and soon will have the ship back on an even keel. But I would suggest, sir, that if you have to take any more torpedoes, you take 'em on the starboard side." Pops Healy, DCA USS Lexington.