Anyone up for Vandenberg in June?

[SPLzero]

So its in keywest and sinking date is may 21st (crosses fingers)

Thinking sometime in june.

[TommyB]

from Key West's ship finally comes in (http://www.keysnet.com/news/story/94697.html)

Key West's ship finally comes in
'Vandenberg' completes journey from Virginia, final work to start to prepare for scuttling

By SEAN KINNEY
skinney@keynoter.com
Posted - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 09:03 AM EDT

It took more than $8 million and 10 years, but the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg arrived in Key West at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday, greeted at its temporary dockage, the Truman Waterfront, by a crowd of several hundred people.

Plans are for the 523-foot decommissioned military vessel to be intentionally sunk in late May or early June as an artificial reef six miles south of the city. It's expected to provide a huge boon to the dive and snorkel industry.

"Not only will it be the second largest ship in the world ever intentionally sunk to become an artificial reef, but it is of huge historical significance," Mayor Morgan McPherson says.

The largest ship intentionally scuttled as an artificial reef is the 888-foot USS Oriskany, which took the plunge in 2006 off Pensacola.

The 510-foot Spiegel Grove was sunk off Key Largo in 2002 at a cost of $1.4 million.

While the Vandenberg has reached its final destination after spending time in the Navy's mothball fleet on the James River and after being cleaned of contaminants at a Norfolk, Va., shipyard, there are still lots of nuts and bolts left in the operation.

"I'm exhausted," said Key West City Commissioner Bill Verge, the city's point man on the project. "It doesn't end here, it just begins here. Everybody acts like it's done."

Final preparations include cutting 47 holes into the hull, final asbestos inspections, a once-over from federal regulators, and rigging for the explosives that will eventually send her to the bottom.

The ship passed Marathon Monday and was scheduled to arrive off Key West late Tuesday. Today around 9 a.m., the ship is set to be maneuvered by various tug and pilot boats into Truman Harbor and docked near the USS Mohawk on the East Quay Wall. Other boats must be at least 500 yards away as it makes its entrance.

U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West Cmdr. Scott Buschman said, "We're asking everyone to stay away from the Vandenberg. We want to make sure it's safe."

The ship will not be open to public tours due to safety concerns, but a good view of the Vandenberg will be available from the East Quay Wall and from aboard the Mohawk.

Plans are for the ship to be on the ocean's bottom by June 1, the start of the six-month hurricane season.

After preparations are complete, the Vandenberg will be towed out to the scuttling location and anchored in spot. The Coast Guard, with help from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, will set up a perimeter of 500 yards around the ship.

Verge said he heard reports that when the Vandenberg was in transit down the Keys, many boaters were motoring right up next to it and ignoring the steel lines attaching the tugboats to the powerless Vandenberg.

The Conch Republic Military is hosting a welcoming reception for the Vandenberg at 8 a.m. today on the Mohawk. It's $10 per person, which includes a tour of the old Coast Guard ship, coffee and pastries.

[tj]

Here is some History I've found on the web:

Operational history

Transport Ship

The unnamed C4-S-A1-design transport was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC Hull No. 702) on 22 February 1943 at Richmond, California, by Kaiser Co., Inc., Yard 3; named General Harry Taylor (AP-145) on 2 October 1943; launched on 10 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Mamie M. McHugh; acquired by the Navy on 29 March 1944; placed in ferry commission on 1 April 1944 for transfer to Portland, Oregon, for conversion to a transport by Kaiser Co., Inc., Vancouver, Washington; decommissioned on 10 April 1944; and commissioned on 8 May 1944 at Portland, Captain James L. Wyatt in command.

Following shakedown off San Diego, General Harry Taylor sailed from San Francisco on 23 June 1944 with troop reinforcements for Milne Bay, New Guinea. After returning to San Francisco on 3 August with veterans of the Guadalcanal campaign embarked, she continued transport voyages between San Francisco and island bases in the western Pacific. During the next 10 months, she steamed to New Guinea, the Solomons, New Caledonia, the Marianas, the New Hebrides, the Palaus, and the Philippines, carrying troops and supplies, until 29 June 1945 when she departed San Francisco for duty in the Atlantic.

With the European war over, General Harry Taylor made two "Magic Carpet" voyages to Marseilles and back, carrying returning veterans of the fighting in that theater. Next she sailed twice to Karachi, India, via the Suez Canal. Returning to New York on 3 January 1946, the transport then began the first of four voyages to Bremerhaven, Germany, and Le Havre, France. She reached New York again on 21 May 1946 and decommissioned on 13 June at Baltimore. She was stricken from the Navy Register on 3 July 1946.

General Harry Taylor served for a time with the U.S. Army Transport Service, but was reacquired by the Navy on 1 March 1950 for use by the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). She was reinstated on the Navy List on 28 April 1950. Her early duties consisted mainly of carrying troops, dependents, and large numbers of European refugees. USNS General Harry Taylor (T-AP-145) operated in a typical year to the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and in northern European waters. In 1957, she took part in the Hungarian Relief program, transporting several thousand refugees of the valiant but abortive Hungarian Revolution to Australia. She was placed in ready reserve on 19 September 1957; stricken from the Naval Register on 10 July 1958 and transferred back to the Maritime Administration the same day. She was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, Texas.

Missile Range Instrumentation Ship

General Harry Taylor was then transferred to the U.S. Air Force on 15 July 1961 and was renamed USAFS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg on 11 June 1963.

On 1 July 1964, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was acquired by the Navy and designated T-AGM-10, as a Missile Range Instrumentation Ship, one of ten such ships transferred from the Commander, Air Force Eastern Test Range, to MSTS. "Equipped with extremely accurate and discriminating radar and telemetry equipment," she tracked and analyzed "re-entry bodies in the terminal phase of ballistic missile test flights," carrying out those missile and spacecraft tracking duties in both Atlantic and Pacific waters until her retirement in 1983.[2] She was ultimately stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 April 1993.

In 1998, some scenes of the horror/sci-fi film Virus were filmed aboard the ex-General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The ship substituted for a Russian vessel known as the Akademik Vladislav Volkov, and some of the Cyrillic lettering applied for the film is still visible on the hull today.[1]

The ship was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 May 1999. Her projected transfer to the state of Florida, for use as an artificial reef, received approval on 13 February 2007. The ship will be sited 6 miles (10 km) off the Florida Keys in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The sinking was originally set to take place on 15 May 2008 but was postponed because of cost overruns incurred during the ship's cleanup. A new date will be set after funding issues are resolved, and would most likely be after the 2008 hurricane season.[5]

The ship was later placed under "Federal Arrest" by a US Federal Court for failure to pay shipyard fees related to the cleanup and preparation for the sinking off Key West and was later ordered sold at Auction to pay the shipyard fees. A group of banks and financiers from Key West was able to arrange to pay the fees and title of the ship was transfered to the city of Key West.

On April 12th, 2009, the Vandenberg left the shipyard and began the long tow to Key West. On April 22, 2009 it arrived in the Key West Harbor where it is currently moored at the East Quay Pier. The planned sinking date hasn't officially been released yet, but it is intended to be sunk before Hurricane Season starts on June 1st.

[Scubastud16]

It was also used in a horror movie in the 90's if I remember correctly. Virus? Something like that.

Anyways, I'd be down for a trip to do Key Largo and West one weekend.

[TommyB]

In her Prime
http://bigshipwrecks.com/images/vanimage/Vandenberg1.jpg

USS/USNS Gen. Harry Taylor
Built by Kaiser Shipyard, Richmond California (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/built_by_kaiser.htm)
Ports of call 1944-45 (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/Ports%20of%20Call_44-45.htm)
San Francisco (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/boarding%20at%20SF.htm)
New Guinea (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/New%20Guinea.htm)
Pearl Harbor (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/Pearl%20Harbor.htm)
Service as a troop transport, WWII (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/Crew%20and%20Troops.htm)
"Magic Carpet" bringing the troops home (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/magic_carpet.htm)
Marseilles, France (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/marseilles.htm)
Egypt (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/egypt.htm)
refugees from Europe and the Hungarian Revolution (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/Service%20with%20MSTS.htm)
Who was Gen. Harry Taylor? (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/taylor/taylor%20biography.htm)USAFS/USNS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg
1961 Conversion by Bethlehem Steel and Sperry Rand (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/vandenberg/Van%20conversion.htm)
1963 Recommissioned as USAFS Gen Hoyt S. Vandenberg (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/vandenberg/commission.htm)
About the Atlantic Missile Range (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/vandenberg/atlantic_missile_range.htm)
About the Air Force Missile Test Center (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/vandenberg/afmtc.htm)
Log of the Vandenberg - 1978-82 (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/vandenberg/vandenberg_log.htm) (with photo gallery)
Who was Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg? (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/vandenberg/vandenberg%20bio.htm)MARAD Fleet, James River, VA
1983 Mothballed and transferred to MARAD (http://www.bigshipwrecks.com/history/today/marad.htm)Universal Pictures Movie, "Virus"
1996 Leased to Universal Studios for filming the movie Virus (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/universal/filming_for_universal_studios.htm)
see photos from the movie (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/universal/virus.htm)
see a clip from the movie (http://www.virusthemovie.com/media/clips_body.html)ARK in the news
1996 ARK selects ship to create an artificial reef in Key West, Florida (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/today/selects.htm)
1998 Florida Keys Community College plans monitoring and educational program (http://bigshipwrecks.com/education/fkcc.htm)
1999 Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary approves site and ARK plan (http://bigshipwrecks.com/environment/sanctuary.htm)
2000 City of Key West commission votes to hold necessary permits to create artificial reef (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/today/city_commission.htm)
More news items about ARK (http://bigshipwrecks.com/history/news/scrapbook.htm)

[TommyB]

Cool pic of scale showing a diver

http://bigshipwrecks.com/images/diving_img/drawings/vandenberg_libLg.gif

[Jim Whited]

I have fond memories of this ship as a child going fishing with my dad at Port Canaveral. She was moored at the Naval station there and it was an awesome sight. I would always waive to the sailors onboard as we passed by. We even took a tour of it one time. I can remember seeing her underway a couple of times either comming or going from the port, even on the water she looked massive.

[danherbon]

I'm in!

[cyberfed]

Put me down for the 'in' list as well!

[FINSnSPURS]

Fed, I think you were already pretty much on the "in" list. You are pretty much on EVERY "in" list. :)

[willardj]

When in June are you talking? I'll be down in Key largo with the family in the mid of June.

[Peter]

I spoke to Bill Stone yesterday and he is on the group that is going to be checking for unexploded charges after the sinking. Look for his new posts on this site after that. I think he may be changing his name on the site to Lefty.

[Techdiver]

That would be a great dive!!!!!!!


:diving333:diving333