Valentine’s Day on a Battleship

Sunday, February 14, 2010

We only had to drive about 21 miles to get to our destination today.  We headed over to the San Jacinto Battlefield State Historic Site.  This was the battle which gave the Republic of Texas it’s freedom from Mexico.

After the crushing defeat at the Alamo and the slaughter of many Texans at the Goliad, the Texan army under Sam Houston was in retreat eastward towards the US border.  General Santa Anna was in pursuit but had split his force.  While he pursued the Texan forces towards the present day Houston, the rest of his troops were dispersed north and south.  His force was caught unaware and the surprised Mexicans were defeated within 20 minutes.  Santa Anna managed to escape from the melee but was captured the following day.  He surrendered unconditionally and withdrew from Texas, giving rise to the Republic of Texas.

The Battle of San Jacinto is remembered with a huge memorial (what else, this is Texas).  The monument rises 570 feet above the battlefield and has an observation level at 489 feet.  It is 15 feet higher than the Washington Monument.  After a 40 second ride to the observation deck, you are treated to a wonderful view of the surrounding landscape.  The morning was somewhat hazy so we could see the skyscrapers of Houston but only faintly.  We could see the line of the Houston ship canal which was quite busy with marine traffic.  This whole area is surrounded by petro-chemical plants.  It seems to be an almost endless sea of storage tanks and thousands of smoke stacks belching smoke and who knows what kinds of chemicals.  These plants of course are very close to the east Texas oil fields and the Gulf Coast fields.

The museum (of course another museum) at the base of the monument describes the battle and has numerous artefacts including some original uniforms and battle banners.  One thing that we have noticed about the museums in Texas, is that they ALL have a huge collection of firearms and other weaponry.  They also present a great collection of early 20th Century black and white photos of Houston.  

After lunch we crossed the road to the Battleship Texas State Historic Site.  The Texas was originally commissioned in 1914, as a dreadnought class and served in both the of the world wars.  It narrowly missed being sunk by a Kamikaze bomber in the second world war.  This historic site allows almost totally unrestricted access to every area of the ship.  It is difficult to imagine that this ship was the home for 1700 men for months at a time.  Butchers, bakers but no candlestick makers worked on the ship.  Dentists fixed cavities while doctors performed operations in fully equipped rooms.  The barber shop had 3 chairs to keep all the men respectable. The kitchens and galley provided 3 meals a day for the 1700 crew members.  How would you like to cook for that group day in and day out?

The elevators and cranks that operated the anti-aircraft guns are still functional and you can rotate the guns in an arc side to side, just as they must have done during the war.  I was able to contort myself enough to climb into the firing station of the 14” guns.  These guns have rounds that are about 31/2 feet long.  There are two firing positions on either side of the hatch, which sit almost directly behind the breeches of the two guns. I can’t even imagine how loud that it must have been confined within those plate steel walls.  These main guns are about 20 feet long, with a recoil of 40 inches; the shells are about 3 1/2 feet long.

Steel bunks with flimsy mattresses were placed anywhere they they could find some spare space below decks. The washroom facilities were not private with open stalls almost side by side.  I suppose this could help to build team spirit among the crew members.  We found it to be very cool and damp in the decks below the main deck; although this may be because there was no heating from the engines. We then went foreword to the officers quarters.  These were much more private and comfortable.  The washroom facilities were at least separated from each other with a white drape at the front. 

The ship is operated by the Texas State Parks department, which offers groups the chance to sleep overnight on the ship.  A Boy Scout troop had slept over the previous night, that we had visited.  We managed to avoid the throng as we were in a different part of the ship when they had left.  Janet was a real trooper as we went up and down every ladder in the ship and Jerry examined every nook and cranny.

Observation – We were expecting to see a lot more out of state licences as we moved south, but this is not the case.  We have noticed that there are a lot of Texas licensed RV’s parked in these RV campgrounds and many of the campgrounds have individual electrical meters at the sites.  (We were metered at the Cottonwood Creek resort, near Austin.)  There are a large number of working people and families that live in their trailers year round.  It rarely gets below freezing in the winter and the RV provides sufficient insulation and protection.  We spoke to the guy next door, who has Oregon plates on his motor home.  He has been in this same spot for the last three years.