WWII Vets Sail Old Boat Across Atlantic

ByABC News
December 12, 2000, 8:09 PM

G I B R A L T A R, Dec. 12 -- Thirty-one men, with an average age of 74, sailed from Gibraltar today in a ship thats almost as old as they are.

Their ship is a veteran of World War II, an amphibious landing ship responsible for delivering thousands of tanks and troops to battlefields in Europe and the Pacific.

The ships crew made up of veterans from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars wants to sail it 4,600 miles across a wintry Atlantic to Alabama, where they hope to turn the ship into a museum and monument.

Refurbishing an Old Treasure

The ship was a mess when these veterans found it in March in a naval yard in Greece. It was destined for the junk heap.

The hull was rusted and the battleships gray paint was peeling. The wheelhouse contained a collection of brass antiques.

The veterans have had to beg and borrow tools and equipment to fix up the ship. The project they had thought would take just a few weeks to make the ship seaworthy turned into months of work.

That took a lot out of you at our age, says veteran John Calvin. If anybody had seen this ship when we first arrived they would never believe that it would look like it is now.

On Nov. 30, the boat arrived at Gibraltar the British colony at the gateway between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic after sailing 13 days from Greece.

But the U.S. Coast Guard says the ship is not safe enough to cross the Atlantic and had tried to persuade them not to continue the journey.

The Coast Guard says the ship lacks adequate lifesaving equipment and an emergency generator, and its engine and rudders are in questionable condition. Even when the ships were new, they were not easy to sail. Because of their shallow, flat bottom, they have a tendency to bob on ocean swells.

As one officer says, being on an amphibious landing ship in a storm is a little bit like being a pea rattling inside a tin can.

Now, theres an adequate navigation system, and the captain and his crew say they can complete the voyage.