You can take home a chunk of history

JENNY ARCHER
The Post and Courier

Over the years, the Yorktown has served not only as a tourist destination, but as the site of both somber commemorations and jubilant celebrations. Now it’s possible to own a small piece of that history as parts of the aircraft carrier’s flight deck are put up for sale.

MOUNT PLEASANT — Like land, they're not making any more of the Yorktown. And now you can own a piece of the wooden flight deck or the steel hull of "The Fighting Lady."

A piece of the flight deck about the size of a pen is $9.95. A paperweight-size chunk of the 1.5-inch-thick steel hull retails for $19.95. Both are available online or at the gift shop just past the store entrance, where wood and steel pieces of the ship are piled into boxes on the floor next to a crate of dummy hand grenades.

The wooden flight deck souvenir on Friday caught the eye of John Scott of Marion, Ind. "You wouldn't figure it would be wood because it would burn up. They'd have to treat it," Scott said.

From the aircraft carrier's launch in 1943 until 1955, its flight deck was wooden because its light weight gave the ship greater speed to more quickly cover the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean. And if damaged, the wooden flight deck was easier to repair than steel.

With the advent of fire-breathing jet fighters, the flight deck was modified with a rubber coating over the wood and steel at the aft of the ship, said Jim McElroy, Patriots Point Development Authority communications director. "People are just fascinated over the fact that the wood exists and that you can even purchase it," McElroy said.

During restoration work on the USS Yorktown, portions of the original wooden flight deck had to be removed. Other portions already had been preserved for museum purposes, so pieces of the World War II flight deck became available to the public. The 1.5-inch-thick chunks of the steel hull offered to the public are from work that was done for the installation of an elevator for the disabled.

The History Channel will feature the Yorktown as part of "Hero Ships," a 13-part series of one-hour programs in the high-definition format. Inter-views and an insider's look provided by the real stories of sailors will be featured.

"Hero Ships" also will feature a segment on another Patriots Point ship, the USS Laffey, which is the only surviving American destroyer from World War II to have served in both the Atlantic and Pacific campaigns. Air times for the show were not available Friday.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711.