We visited the Maine Maritime Museum to learn the history of ship building along the Maine coast. The Museum is in the town of Bath, Maine which is also the home of the Bath Iron Works. Ship building is still practiced here as the Bath Iron Works manufacturers many of our nations destroyers.
The newest class of destroyers is the Zumwalt class. The first ship of any new class of ships carries the namesake of the class. The docent at the museum told us the USS Zumwalt would be heading down river in two days and we might wish to come back and see it head off for delivery to the Navy. We did and enjoyed seeing it head out.
It is to be commissioned in Baltimore October 15th 2016 and home ported out of San Diego, California. Two more ships of the class are under construction.
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| This is the floating dry dock at the Bath Iron Works |
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| You can just begin to see the Zumwalt come around the dry dock |
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| The sloping slab sides of the ship are intended to deflect radar. This is a 600 foot ship that has the radar signature of a 32 foot lobster boat. |
I bet that was quite something to see. I guess I thought it would be painted differently. Did it still have to be painted?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is painted a light grey that tends to blend with the sky color when at sea. Camouflage paint is no longer needed as gun directors are no longer visually sighted, but rely on a radar return which is noticeably diminished on this ship.
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