JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Now that the USS Orleck is in Jacksonville, crews will work for about a month to get the ship ready for tours.
But while he was on the ship as it sailed down the St. John's River, First Coast News reporter Rich Donnelly got a sneak peek at what visitors to the destroyer will be able to see when it does open for tours.
Craig Bernat of the Jacksonville Naval Museum gave the First Coast News crew a guided tour of the ship. Up first on the tour was the anti-submarine warfare rocket launcher.
"Basically what it would do is take a torpedo with a rocket on the end, throw it out over the horizon to give it better distance than a regular torpedo," says Bernat, "next we'll go up to the bridge and you can see where they drive this thing."
The view from the starboard side bridge wing was breathtaking, an unobstructed view of downtown Jacksonville.
"If the captain wants to come out to see what's going on, he would sit in his chair and observe targets off in the distance from here," says Bernat, "navigate the ship from here when they're pulling into port."
Next up is a tour of the bridge. The helm of the Orleck wasn't in place during our tour, but the Jacksonville Naval Museum does have it.
"This is a status board," says Bernat. "It gives you the status of everything going on on the ship." Although at this time the status board is still in a foreign language from the Orleck's time in the Turkish navy.
"Here would be the engine order telegraph where they would bring up how many turns and you would have levers like you see," says Bernat, "those were also removed while we were in the yards."
The Orleck also has a radar scope, but some parts were removed and used as props in the Tom Hanks World War II movie 'Greyhound'.
"It needs a cleaning, let's face it," says Bernat. "But a lot of it is cosmetic work."
Volunteers are welcome to help clean the ship. And for this group, restoring the ship for the city brings them great pride.
"It's great saving this historic ship because it's the 2nd most decorated war ship," says Bernat. "We've talked to Vietnam vets and with the 11,000 rounds she fired out of her guns on shore bombardments and many said the ship saved their lives."
And soon visitors will be able to see that for themselves.