Norfolk and Newport News

We woke up to a miserable day in Richmond.  There was a huge storm rolling in and the sky was dark.  We still wanted to explore the region a bit more, so we decided we would drive out towards the coast.

The coastal region around Virginia is famous for its association with the US navy.  Along the coast are famous ports and shipyards, and Reh and I both wanted to see some of these.  His work with the military and my own personal interest in military history was more than enough reason for us to make the drive out.  We reached Norfolk a bit before lunch.  We went to the naval base to join one of the tours, but got lost on our way there.  We found ourselves stuck in front of a huge entrance area, looking through our phones to try and work out how to get to the start of the tour.  Looking in the rearview mirror, we could see two armed servicemen approaching the car.  One of them walked straight to the driver side window, whilst the other stood back, his hand on his gun.  The serviceman at our window was incredibly polite and helpful and directed us back onto the road towards where we needed to go.  We found our way to the small office where the tour of the naval base started.  The rains started coming down as we jumped into the coach to take us through the base.  We passed row after row of enormous ships, gawking at their size.

No photos were allowed on the naval base!  It seemed an appropriate requirement given where we were.  We were happy to be there, so we pressed our faces up to the windows of the bus as we slowly drove by the ships.  Somehow, even with clear instructions to take no pictures, there were still some people on the tour who felt compelled to take photos.  At the end of the trip, those people were pulled to the side by large American military personnel and forced to delete the photos from their phones and cameras.

After the naval base tour, we made the short drive into the centre of Norfolk and went onto the USS Wisconsin.  This old battleship from WWII is now a permanent museum and we were able to walk throughout the ship and its interior.  It was a great opportunity to see a ship like this.  In the past, I've been able to go onto other museum ships to have a look around, but never have I been on anything this enormous and famous.

It was incredible just how open the ship was.  It didn't seem like any part of this floating museum was off limits and we were able to walk through what seemed like every section.  We moved from the operational parts of the ships all the way through to the living quarters.  Being able to walk through all these parts of the ship, I felt like I could imagine far better the conditions that these sailors would have gone through.

Even though the ship was now decades past its retirement, it was still an imposing and impressive vessel.  This was one of the most powerful battleships ever built, probably the most powerful ever built by any of the Allied nations.  With its huge forecastle and enormous guns, it was like a guard for the city of Norfolk, even if the guns were, strictly speaking, pointed towards the city...

The rest of Norfolk felt deserted.  With the storm coming in, most people seemed to have retreated inside.  Walking through the streets, we found ourselves almost completely alone.  It wasn't clear whether this was just a quiet town or if it was a sign of a greater level of malaise.  It made me think back to my days living in Canberra.  On certain days, going into the centre of Canberra you could have been mistaken for thinking you had walked into the scene of some post apocalyptic world where all the people had disappeared.  This place sadly had that same feeling.

We went back to the car and drove back towards Richmond.  On the way there, we decided we would go through Newport News.  This town with its pretty name was any but pretty to look at.  Following on from our nautical themed trip, we drove to the shipyards to try and get a better look at the creation of America's naval might.  The whole area around the shipyards was awful.  There were crumbling and decrepit buildings everywhere.  It wasn't like in Baltimore, which had old and beautiful buildings which had fallen into disrepair, these were just terrible looking buildings in terrible condition.  Driving past the shipyards themselves, we saw some enormous industrial equipment and monstrous ships that towered over all the surrounding buildings.  As we had been driving close, I had even caught sight of an enormous gantry crane, so large that the words "Newport News Shipyard" was written across the length of the beam in script legible from a huge distance away.  I wasn't sure if other parts of Newport News were nicer, but driving around these areas didn't seem nice at all.  We drove a bit further South towards a park and walked out to get a better look at the ships being worked on.

They really are impressive.  These monsters are capable of bringing a level of death and destruction greater than anything else in history.  They're more than just war machines, they are floating cities made purely for the single purpose of projecting America's might.  Newport News may not have been so impressive, but these machines sure were.  We drove back towards Richmond.  The rains were now hammering down on the car and the roads were surprisingly poorly lit.  We eventually made it back, completely exhausted from the long day.  The streets were still quiet, but we found a small jazz bar near the hotel.  We sat in there listening to the jazz band, eating dinner and drinking beers.  People were dancing and laughing.  It had been strange in the South.  Whenever we had found indoor places like this, they were warm and full of life.  When we had been outside, it had felt almost deserted.