Turnstile Tours

On Friday, October 17, we are honored to be hosting at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92 a lecture by Jeyathurai Ayadurai, Director of Singapore History Consultants and the Changi Museum, which researches and interprets the rich World War II history of Singapore. The lecture will focus on the Fall of Singapore to Japanese forces in 1942.

While most Americans know about the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was supposedly the opening salvo of the war in the Pacific (leaving aside the 4+ years of full-scale war between Japan and China), fewer know about the Japanese campaigns in Southeast Asia, nor are they aware that Pearl Harbor was just part of an enormous, coordinated offensive across the Pacific Rim by the Japanese. Within the span of less than 12 hours, Japan launched attacks at seven different locations, opening up a front that spanned more than 4,000 miles, from the Malay Peninsula to the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

When looking at the timing of these attacks, it is difficult to discern coordination, as they appear a day apart. This is thanks to the International Date Line, so while Hawaii was attacked on December 7 – on the east side of the line – other locations were attacked simultaneously on December 8 – on the west side. Below all the campaigns are translated into Eastern Standard Time:

Landings in Malaya (UK) and Thailand -- Dec 8, 12:00am (Dec 7, 12:00pm EST)

Attack on Pearl Harbor (US) -- Dec 7, 7:48am (Dec 7, 12:48pm EST)

Attack on Guam (US) -- Dec 8, 8:27am (Dec 7, 5:27pm EST)

Attack on Wake Island (US) -- Dec 8, 12:00pm (Dec 7, 6:00pm EST)

Attack on Hong Kong (UK) -- Dec 8, 8:00am (Dec 7, 7:00pm EST)

Attack on Philippines (US) -- Dec 8, 12:40pm (Dec 7, 11:40pm EST)

The latest of these assaults, on the Philippines, was actually supposed to happen much earlier, but Japanese aircraft were fogged in at their bases on Formosa (Taiwan). And among all these, Pearl Harbor was arguably the least consequential, as it was the only attack that was not followed by a full-scale land invasion, as, for example, the invasion of Malaya would culminate in the fall of Singapore 10 weeks later. This attack was designed instead to cripple America's Pacific Fleet so that it could not intervene in Japan's campaign across Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. The attack on Pearl Harbor was audacious and destructive, and it pushed the operational limits of Japan's Navy, but it was not the knockout blow its architects had hoped.

The fall of Singapore, meanwhile, sent a shockwave across the globe. The city touted as the "Gibraltar of the East," with defenses designed to withstand a siege of three months or more, fell in one week, to an army one-third the size. The result was the largest surrender in the history of the British Army (to be followed two months later by the largest surrender in the history of the American Army, at Bataan, Philippines). 

Join us tomorrow at 7pm for this free lecture at BLDG 92 which will help put the Pacific War and the role of the home front (like the Brooklyn Navy Yard) into a global context.

Brooklyn Navy Yard Visitors Share Memories and Mementos

Earlier this month, we hosted a group of retirees from central New Jersey on a tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On nearly every tour we lead, we have visitors who have personal connections to the Yard – they’ve worked or served there, or had family members who did – but this tour was special for the sheer number and depth of people’s connections to the site.

One woman said she used to babysit the children of naval officers at the homes along Admirals Row; another went on a date at the old Officers Club. Two women had fathers who worked at the Yard, and in their spare time (and with a little spare metal), they fashioned jewelry for their daughters in the Yard’s workshops, which they still have – one was even wearing it on the tour!

The visitor who did not happen to bring her jewelry was nice enough to send us a photograph of it and share some of the background. Amy Petti-Fischer’s father Peter worked in the Navy Yard for more than 30 years as a welder, and during that time he fashioned a set of gold bracelets for his three daughters; Amy says she still wears hers, as do her sisters, “with love of my dad.”

“For a time he worked a late shift,” Amy said. “I was pre-school but still remember the sad feeling when he headed out to work. He was very prideful of his job.” Peter began working in the Yard as a teenager, but he passed away at just 49 years old.

Another highlight of the tour was when Sheldon Preville shared his experiences at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A veteran of the destroyer USS Renshaw in World War II, Mr. Preville read for us a letter he had written to The Tin Can Sailor, a newsletter published by the national association of destroyer veterans. Here’s what he wrote:

Dear Editor,

My four years of service in the Navy during World War II, have left me with many memories. I would like to share one of them with you.

It was the 5th of December 1942 when the USS RENSHAW (DD-499) was commissioned at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. All deck hand were participating in the loading of stores and ammunition, before we would get underway. The weather was extremely cold and we all wore our dress blues to keep warm. Under these ideal conditions, the Murphy brothers, another seaman and myself came up with what we thought was a brilliant idea! Following the afternoon muster and with our dress hat and tie under pea coat, one by one we left the loading dock area. We proceeded to the Navy yard gate, showed our ID cards and passed on through.

Our plan was to head for Times Square, where we anticipated spending the evening with four very lovely ladies. Unfortunately, our imagination got the best of us, as it never even came close to happening. Instead, we settled for going to the Strand Theater at 47th Street and Broadway where we saw the movie “CASABLANCA.” It was a great movie, but now it was much too late in the evening for us to get back to the ship. Se, we had another great idea! Since we all lived locally … we went to our homes to sleep. My parents were so excited to see me that they thought the war was over. At 0500 we all met at the Navy yard and once again passed through the gate easily. The closer we got to the ship, the more relaxed we became. We now had more than enough time to get aboard before muster, unfortunately, that wonderful feeling ended very abruptly. The RENSHAW was not where we left her the day before.

Needless to day our thoughts of being AWOL during war time could only mean a court martial, with a dishonorable discharge and surely brig time for many years. Then I had this really sick thought that the Marine Guards would make us watch “CASABLANCA” every night before we sacked out.

With these horrible thoughts in mind, we aggressively tracked down the Navy Yard Dispatch Officer. He informed us that the RENSHAW had moved to another pier and was tied up to two other destroyers and furthermore we had better get there ASAP, as she was just about ready to get underway. We did’t just run, we literally flew; fortunately we got there just in time to make muster.

The movie “CASABLANCA” won the Oscar for the best movie of 1942 and is now shown at least four or five times a year on TV. I’ve watched it over and over again, these past sixty years and each time I do, I get that same frightening feeling of what could have been.

Sheldon Preville

Tin Can Sailor, October-November-December 2002

Thank you so much to these visitors for sharing their stories! We find that these personal connections add so much to the tour experience for all visitors, but we also learn new things about the Yard all the time, and we are indebted to these folks for their generosity, as well as for their and their families’ service to their country. Throughout the summer, we’ll be sharing here more of the memories and stories that these very special visitors to the Brooklyn Navy Yard have shared with us over the years.Mr. Preville was certainly thankful he did make it back to his ship, because after its commissioning, the Renshaw went on to illustrious service in the Pacific, earning eight battle stars. After the war, it was also the vessel that carried President Harry Truman during his review of the fleet in New York Harbor on Navy Day, October 27, 1945.

And you can hear more voices from the Yard from the ongoing oral history project by the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92; you can listen to excerpts here, find more clips in the BLDG 92 exhibits, and we play many different oral history clips on all of our bus tours. If you would like to submit your own stories of the Yard, you can find more information about contributing to the BLDG 92 database here.

Remember – our World War II Tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard (coming up on July 6, August 3, and September 7) is always free for World War II-era veterans and defense workers.

Learn more about the ships, sailors and shipbuilders of the Second World War on The “Can-Do” Yard: World War II and the Brooklyn Navy Yard tour, offered on the first Sunday of every month and on select holiday weekends – please visit our tour page for information and to purchase tickets. Advance ticket purchases are recommended, and this tour is offered free to all World War II-era veterans and defense workers. We also offer our Past, Present & Future Tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard weekends at 2pm, as well as other theme-based tours. All tours are offered in partnership with and begin at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, which offers free admission to three floors of exhibitions on the yard’s past and present, the Ted & Honey rooftop cafe, and a host of great special events and programs.

LST-312 headed down the shipways at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Courtesy: Navsource.org

Around the world today, people are commemorating the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in history. The landings finally cracked open "Fortress Europe" and marked the beginning of the end of the war with Germany. World leaders, including President Obama, gathered in Normandy today, joined by veterans of the pivotal battle, who's numbers are shrinking dramatically with each passing anniversary.

We remember and honor the heroism of the soldiers who waded through the surf or dropped in by parachute, pouring 150,000 Allied personnel into France in just the first day, and establishing a vital toehold on the continent that would allow in millions more. But D-Day was not just a triumph of courage or valor or military strategy – it was a triumph of industrial might and human labor, bringing the full force of the Allies' factories, farms, and shipyards onto a narrow stretch of beach. It's important to remember, as the saying goes, the men (and women) behind the man behind the gun, and in this case, we remember the shipbuilders of Brooklyn.

We'll be marking the event at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Sunday, June 8, with our special World War II tour of the yard, and the yard does have a direct connection to Normandy, as several vessels used in the assault were built there. During the course of the war, the yard built eight LSTs, or Landing Ships, Tank, used to both deliver large armored vehicles to beaches and launch smaller landing craft for vehicles and personnel.

All eight of the LSTs (hull numbers 311 through 318) participated in the Italian campaigns in 1943, landing troops at Sicily and Salerno; all but two would continue their duties at Normandy (LSTs 313 and 318 were sunk in Italy). In the photo below, taken on D-Day +1 (June 7) on Omaha Beach, LST-312 can be seen at the far right, while 311 is seventh from the right, offloading vehicles. LST-312, we know, was making its second journey to Normandy, as it had delivered British equipment and personnel to Gold Beach a day earlier (if you want to learn more about this ship, David Finlayson, the nephew of a Navy sailor who served on the ship, has a great Facebook page dedicated to its history).

LSTs on Omaha Beach, June 7, 1944. Courtesy: National Archives

As was noted in the Brooklyn Navy Yard's weekly newspaper, The Shipworker, these were special vessels for the workers of the yard, because the honor of naming the ship's sponsors – usually extended to public officials, top naval brass, or their families – was given to eight civilian employees of yard who had the longest tenure. Each of them chose, the paper states, to name their own family members as the ship's official sponsors. The ships were launched with little fanfare, and while their sponsors are known, the names of the veteran employees who picked them is not mentioned, unfortunately.

New York Navy Yard Shipworker, August 27, 1943. Courtesy: Brooklyn Navy Yard Archive

Now, with nearly 7,000 vessels involved in the invasion, it's likely that most of the shipyards on both coasts of the Atlantic have some connection to the D-Day landings, and our six humble ships were but a small part of the vast armada. But considering that the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the world's busiest shipyard during the war, and more than 5,000 vessels passed through the cozy confines of Wallabout Bay for repairs, there were surely a few more ships with Brooklyn connections off the coast of France on June 6, 1944.

While our six D-Day landing ships are no longer plying the waves – though all six are etched into the US Navy monument at Utah Beach in Normandy – there are actually a couple of LSTs still afloat. In Evansville, Indiana, LST-325 has been transformed into a floating museum dedicated to these amphibious warfare ships and the men who sailed them. And if you've ever taken the ferry between New London, Connecticut and Long Island's Orient Point, you too have ridden aboard an LST, though it's now carrying cars instead of tanks; rechristened the Cape Henlopen, in its former life it was LST-510, and it too earned a battle star at Normandy.

Learn more about the ships, sailors and shipbuilders of the Second World War on The “Can-Do” Yard: World War II and the Brooklyn Navy Yard tour, offered on the first Sunday of every month and on select holiday weekends – please visit our tour page for information and to purchase tickets. Advance ticket purchases are recommended, and this tour is offered free to all World War II-era veterans and defense workers. We also offer our Past, Present & Future Tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard weekends at 2pm, as well as other theme-based tours. All tours are offered in partnership with and begin at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, which offers free admission to three floors of exhibitions on the yard’s past and present, the Ted & Honey rooftop cafe, and a host of great special events and programs.

The post was authored by Andrew Gustafson.

Our new favorite ship built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard: the humble USS Vestal. Originally built as a coal carrier and launched in 1908, Vestal was converted into a repair ship and did thousands of vital repair jobs on ships around the Pacific during World War II, extending the Brooklyn Navy Yard's reputation for keeping the US Navy afloat against all odds around the globe. The Vestal suffered direct hits at Pearl Harbor – while tied up alongside the Brooklyn-born USS Arizona – but stayed afloat and immediately went to work, despite the damage, patching up other ships. For his gallantry in saving his seemingly hopeless ship at Pearl Harbor, Comm. Cassin Young won the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the Vestal earned two battle stars in the war.

Read Comm. Cassin's report of the ship's actions at Pearl Harbor.

"Domani We're Home" – Naples to New York, 1945

Above is a copy of The Stars and Stripes – not the international Army broadsheet, but a much more modest edition, typed out aboard a rolling Liberty ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

The ship was the SS John Jay, which was making the crossing from Naples to New York in September 1945, bringing 830 American servicemen home from the front. Aboard that ship was Cindy's grandfather, Chester Weigel, who served in the Army Quartermaster Corps from March 1941 until October 1945. Corporal Weigel spent most of his Army career on the front, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns.

This little four-page news bulletin with the dateline "Heading Home" (the preceding editions bore "SOMEWHERE AT SEA" on the upper left) broke the news to the soldiers that they would not be heading into Newport News, VA, as originally planned, but instead they had been diverted to the Staten Island Terminal in New York City – where the clearly miffed and put-out Statue of Liberty would be waiting for them.

Other news of note in here included Patton's dust-up with Eisenhower over de-Nazification, Truman's plans to share (or not) the secrets of the atom bomb, and the Chicago Cubs' near-clinching of the NL pennant – something that barely interested Chester, even though he was from Chicago. The Cubbies eventually fell in seven games to Detroit in that World Series (their last), which would presage the rest of Chester's life, in a way.

While in Europe, he was issued a gas mask, and inside was a note with the name and address of a woman named Dorothy who worked in a Goodyear factory in Akron, OH. Dorothy had placed notes in three gas masks, something that many of the single women did in the wartime factories; only Chester wrote back, and the two kept up a correspondence for three years. Soon after his ship pulled into New York, Chester went AWOL for eight days to go and meet her – luckily, he only had another two weeks to go in the Army, so he didn't sweat the consequences (or the resulting demotion in rank) too much. The two were soon married, and spent the next 56 years together. Oh, and about the baseball – Dorothy, it turned out, was a devoted Tigers fan, though Chester still didn't care much for baseball for the rest of his life.

Cindy has known this story her entire life, but last year when visiting her mother in Flushing, MI, we sifted through a treasure trove of Chester's military records, including this newspaper (he kept everything, it appears). Not only does it illuminate a part of his own experience in World War II, but that of the millions of men who made the crossing home from Over There.

The Norwegian Constitution Day Parade is today in Bay Ridge –

god syttende mai!

That means happy 17th of May, which was yesterday, but the parade is always held on Sunday. The festivities kick off at 1:30 on 3rd Ave and 80th St, and they end in Leif Ericson Park, on 67th St between 6th and 7th Aves.

Bay Ridge and southern Sunset Park were once the center of New York City's Nordic communities – Eighth Avenue was known as "Lapskaus Boulevard" (a type of Norwegian stew), and sections of the neighborhood were nicknamed "Finn Town." While some Scandinavians came to the neighborhood to be close to jobs in the shipping industry, many others were trading up from the rough-and-tumble Red Hook docks for Bay Ridge's quiet, leafy streets when they arrived in the decades preceding World War II.

But that's all changed, as the community has shrunk and scattered. My own brother-in-law, who's mother is Norwegian and father is first-generation Norwegian-American, left Lapskaus Boulevard for the Long Island suburbs 30 years ago – though he still has relatives who live in Bay Ridge and speak Norwegian at home. Only a few vestiges of the Scandinavian legacy remain, as the area is better known now for large Mexican, Chinese, and Middle Eastern communities. 

Nordic Delicacies, on 3rd Ave and Ovington Ave, is really the only place in the neighborhood offering a full-on Scandinavian experience, but you can also get traditional pastries at Leske's on 5th Ave and 76th St. The Danish Athletic Club, on 65th St between 7th and 8th Aves, soldiers on by hosting events for all sorts of community groups, not just Scandinavians (and, truth be told, the Norwegians started to far outnumber the Danes in the place decades ago). I've never mustered the courage to go into the neighboring Swedish Football Club bar (even though my family is Swedish), as from the street it looks like an ill-lit and terrifying basement.

Instrument of Surrender of Japanese Southern Forces, signed at Singapore, September 12, 1945

This replica of the surrender document was gifted to us during our visit to the Changi Museum and Chapel last fall. Changi commemorates the Japanese occupation of Singapore and the notorious prisoner of war camp located in the area, opened after the island's fall in February 1942 to hold tens of thousands of POWs and "enemy aliens." When the so-called "Gibraltar of the East" fell after just eight days of fighting, 80,000 British-commanded troops (British, Australians, New Zealanders, Malayans, but mostly Indians) surrendered.

Largely unknown to American audiences, the Japanese campaign in Thailand, Malaya, and Singapore began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor – in fact, the Japanese began their landing in British Malaya about 30 minutes before the first planes were spotted over Pearl Harbor – as well as against American forces in the Philippines (which began about 6 hours later). It was a thumping victory for the Japanese, sweeping down the peninsula to the Straits of Malacca in just 100 days, and the city would remain under Japanese occupation until war's end.

Today, Changi Museum is operated by Journeys, a Singaporean company not unlike Turnstile Tours that delivers engaging visitor experience while also pursuing rigorous and groundbreaking historical research. The museum is also home to a replica chapel, modeled on the many chapels built by the prisoners at the camp. 

Last night was the Choice Streets food truck fest at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

At Turnstile Tours, that's what we call corporate synergy.

The always popular event included more than 20 food trucks from around the city, including several of our favorites that we feature on our Food Cart Tours of Midtown and the Financial District. As you can see from our tasting card above, we didn't make it to all of them, as that would have likely resulted in some pretty severe gastrointestinal distress, though our team did divide and conquer, so between us we hit almost all of them.

We did of course check in with our regular tour stops, Souvlaki GR, Korilla BBQ, and The Treats Truck, as well as trucks we take groups to periodically, like Coohaus, Nuchas, and Moo Shu Grill – this last one is a relative newcomer, and their take on the standard Chinese restaurant pancake dish was one of the highlights of the night. And we couldn't miss 2011 Vendy Cup winner Solber Pupusas, as well as past Vendy nominees like Uncle Gussy's, Toum, Mamak, Kelvin Slush, and Comme Ci, Comme Ça.

The Perrys of Newport & the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Last week, Cindy and I (Andrew) spent our brief honeymoon (more on that later) in Newport, Rhode Island. Even though we were told to relax, how could we resist not doing a little bit of work while in the hometown of perhaps the most celebrated family in American naval history, the Perrys! We started our trip at the Naval War College Museum, which has many artifacts and exhibits about the famous Perry brothers, Oliver Hazard and Matthew Calbraith.

This family not only is renowned for their naval exploits, but they have many connections to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Oliver lacks a Brooklyn connection (that I'm aware of, at least), but Matthew is closely associated with the Yard. From 1833 to 1837, we oversaw construction of the first steam-powered warship of the US Navy, the USS Fulton, at the Yard, during which time he also helped found the Navy's first institution of higher learning, the Naval Lyceum, created the Navy's first (short-lived) apprentice system, and served as the Yard's second-in-command. By 1841, he himself had become the Brooklyn Navy Yard commandant. Of course, Matthew's most well-known exploit was his journey to Japan in 1852-1854, which concluded with the Treaty of Kangawa, opening up Japan to foreign trade for the first time in over two centuries (with the exception of a few small concessions for Dutch and Chinese traders) and effectively ending the Sakoku period of isolation.

Above you can see artifacts from the expedition on display at the museum, including Perry's sextant. Also on display are copies of the so-called "Black Ship Scrolls," documents made by Japanese artists at the time of Perry's visit to spread the news around the country. Many copies and versions of the scrolls were made, but only a handful have survived – the one belonging to the Preservation Society of Newport County and displayed in facsimile here is currently on loan to Brown University, which offers a complete, high-resolution digital version on their website, along with a full translation of the text.

Below these images are those of various Perry family graves. First, two images of Matthew's sarcophagus in Newport's Island Cemetery; next is an image of a fascinating little plot that can be found in Manhattan's St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery. Matthew died suddenly in 1858 in New York City, and his body was placed temporarily in the vault of friend, John Slidell; in 1866, he was moved to his final resting place in Newport, though the New York grave marker remains. Below is the obelisk marking the grave of Oliver Hazard Perry, Matthew's much older brother and the hero of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. After several personal and professional dust-ups, he was dispatched to Venezuela to survey the Orinoco River, where he contracted yellow fever and died in 1819.