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Approaching The Ship
As
you approach the ship and come down the gangway, be certain to examine
the KIDD from this vantage point. One of the first things that
you will notice are her signal flags
flying from the mast. The signal flags are the ship's call
letters: NYKF (from top to bottom). As all radio stations and
television stations have call letters, the KIDD's radio station has
call letters too. They are
normally flown to identify the ship when it enters or leaves
port. There is a signal flag for each letter of the alphabet and
each number, zero through nine. |
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The
KIDD was also authorized to fly a pirate flag, the Skull &
Crossbones. This unusual request was granted by the Admiralty at the
request of Rear Admiral Kidd's widow at the ship's commissioning. She
is the vessel ever given official sanction in the history of the U.S.
Navy to fly this flag.
Also
from the gangway, you can see the pirate painted on the Number One
smokestack. The crew of the KIDD called themselves the "Pirates
of the Pacific." This was due, in part, to the name of the ship.
While named after Rear Admiral Kidd, many of the crew looked back in
maritime history to Captain William Kidd, a famous pirate from sailing
days. And so the first crew of the KIDD (called plankowners)
chose the pirate as their mascot and painted his likeness on the
stack, flying the Jolly Roger from the mast. They also lived up to
their nickname of "pirates" by "ransoming" rescued
pilots and aviators to the fleet's carriers for ice cream, a practice
carried on by most destroyers. |
The
KIDD's mascot pirate as seen on the
forward
smokestack during World War II. |
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The
USS KIDD sits high and dry in her cradle during the Mississippi
River's seasonal fall. This unique mooring
design
was featured in Ripley's "Believe It Or Not!" |
If
you are visiting during the latter part of the year, you will see the
KIDD sitting high and dry in her cradle.
This unique design allows her to compensate for the seasonal rise and
fall of the Mississippi River each year. The water level of the
Mississippi in Baton Rouge can vary as much as 40 feet each
year!!! Each spring when the snow melts in the Rocky Mountains,
the Appalachians, and throughout the Midwest, the resulting waters
flow into the river systems and empty into the Mississippi
River. The added rainfall of the spring does the same. As
a result, the waters of the Mississippi rise until the KIDD lifts off
of her cradle and floats at her mooring. When summer comes, the
rainfall up north slackens, the river falls, and the KIDD sits back
down in her cradle, drydocked for another year until spring comes
again. |
Take special note of the bow,
or front, of the ship. It was reinforced for ramming submarines. The sonar
dome is welded to the keel
(bottom) under the forward section of the ship and contained the sonar
transducers that produced sonic pulses and received the echoes. The shell
plating is bolted and welded in strakes, or rows. Plating thickness varied
from 3/4" to 3/8". This is why destroyers were known as "Tin
Cans." The
propellers are 12 feet in diameter
and made of bronze. They rotated in opposite directions for balance.
They came out of the hull through the stern tube and were supported by
the shaft strut. The rudder was
the device that steered the ship. It was angled by a hydraulic ram,
port or starboard (left or right). Pieces of zinc were attached to the
hull in the area of the propellers and the steel hull. Thus, the zinc
would waste away before one of the other metals had a chance to
corrode. |
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