So we’re enjoying our extended Christmas vacation here with my parents when the flodfather asked a question that had us all stumped…
Large ships are usually launched by breaking a bottle of champagne on the bow before the ship enters the water. However, extremely large ships, especially US Naval aircraft carriers, are built in a dry dock, not on building ways. How are these ships now launched? Is the traditional bottle of champagne still broken on the bow prior to flooding the dry dock? Or has this custom been eliminated?
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), a Nimitz-class carrier, was christened with a champagne bottle by Nancy in 2001.
CVN 77, as of now to be named USS George H W Bush (Bush-41 was a decorated WW2 Naval Aviator, and at time of entry the youngest commissioned Navy pilot, the only real carrier-wing jock to ever be Prez) , is “scehduled to be christened” in 2006.
According to this news article, the Navy is scheduling a christening ceremony for it’s newest guided missile destroyer on January 22. They floated it off the builder’s dry dock on December 16 and towed it to its moorings for the upcoming ceremony. No word on whether champagne will be involved.
at the eighth picture down where Nancy Reagan is christening the USS Ronald Reagan, you’ll notice that if you look past her, there’s water right behind the bow of the ship.
So I’ll say that they at least flood the dry dock, if not moor the ship somewhere else before the christening ceremony.
I’m not entirely certain if surface vessels are christened in a flooded drydock, but when we christened the USS VIRGINIA (SSN 774), the christening took place in a flooded drydock. I just viewed photographs of the USS JIMMY CARTER (SSN 23) christening and see that they were christened in the same flooded drydock.
And yes, the traditional bottle of champagne is still used, although on submarines, it’s broken against the aft end of the sail.
Well, of course they’re going to have a christening ceremony when they launch a giant ship a named after a former, much-admired president.
What I would like to know – and perhaps this is what the OP was getting at – is whether all (or most) military ships are christened, even the smaller ones that (presumably) get cranked out of some out-of-the-way shipyard, named for the luitenant governor or somebody like that.
According to the article cited in my previous post, the ship the Navy will be christening in January will be named after Rear Adm. Isaac Kidd. A fine man, I’m sure, but hardly a household name. And, when you consider that this is “just” a destroyer and it’s the third one to be named after Adm. Kidd, it seems like the Navy has plenty of excuses to scrap the christening if they want to–which it appears they don’t.
Well stuyguy, I can’t speak for the Navy, but all Coasy Guard cutters are still christened the old fashioned way. Here’s some pics of Lt. Governor Ulmer christening the new Coast Guard cutter Maple in Wisconsin. If the “black sheep” black hull sailors still get their ships kissed with a champagne bottle, I’d be very surprised to learn of a Navy ship that didn’t.
[Re: USCGC Maple] May I take the opportunity to say the method of launching a medium-sized ship off the slips sideways, even though I know it’s perfectly sound, always strikes me weirdly. I always keep expecting the next one to go turtle.
All of the Aegis destroyers built at Bath Iron Works in Maine get christening ceremonies with all the trimmings, and relatives of the person they’re named for get to do the honors. BIW had been the last US yard to launch ships down slideways and into a big splash, but now they flood a drydock like everyone else.
I want to say that I’ve seen video of a yacht do this - but my memory has lied to me before.
When the CG launched the Healy (420’ breaker), they launched her sideways like the WLMs & Bs. The spectators got much more than they bargained for, including some injuries. For starters, they were way too close to the waters edge, and when the ship hit the water, the crowd got hit with a pretty forceful spray of water. There were some shrapnel injuries as well, from splintered wood sent back into the crowd.