So if your followed one of the links on yesterday's post about the Elissa, you may have noticed that Texas has an official state ship, BB-35 USS Texas, in addition to an official state tall ship. This being Texas, where everything is over-sized, it of course makes sense that the USS Texas is actually taller than the official state tall ship, the Elissa. The Elissa is 99ft 9in at the mainmast and the USS Texas is about 155ft to the radar dome.
Like the Elissa, the USS Texas is no longer seaworthy. She lies in a berth off the Houston ship channel just north of the San Jacinto battleground where Texas won it's independence from Mexico. There are plans to make the berth a dry dock but that's not due to be completed till 2017, so she sits on the mud quietly rusting away. Like the Elissa, a team of volunteers strives to keep her somewhat maintained for the visiting public and a tour is well worth the trek from Houston in my opinion (but do watch out for the mosquitoes – they'll eat you alive even if you douse yourself with deet!).
The USS Texas is the last surviving dreadnought having had her keel laid down in 1911 and entering service in 1914. After service in both world wars, she was decommissioned in 1948. She arrived at her anchorage on April 20, 1948 and was handed over to the State of Texas on April 21, 1948, 112 years to the day of the battle of San Jacinto.
In addition to the the regular tours, occasionally the volunteers run ‘hard-hat' tours where you get to go through unrestored parts of the ship. I've yet to do this. They only run these tours through the winter months as it's just too hot, given the absence of air conditioning, to run them in the summer.
When my son was a cub-scout, we got the chance to stay overnight on the ship. This was where we learned the hard way about the mosquitoes.
During that visit we were allowed inside the forward gun turret – the one prominent in this photo. Inside there for one of the crew there was a 6-inch wide webbing belt that the sailor used to keep his body against the inner wall of the turret to prevent the recoil of the barrel from smushing him. I'd have to lose a few pounds before I could man that position – I couldn't get the webbing belt to hook on to the clasps!
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Production Data
Camera: canon eos 5d
Lens: Canon EF17-35mmf/2.8L USM
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: photoshop CS5
Processing: Topaz Adjust 5
