Jer and Stef: November 2014 Part 3

Old Slave Mart Museum. I just had a second to run in before it closed, but this was a huge part of slave trade once.

"Charleston functioned as a major slave collecting and reselling center. The Old Slave Mart Museum, recounts the story of Charleston's role in this inter-state slave trade by focusing on the history of this particular building and site and the slave sales that occurred here. Possibly the only known building used as a slave auction gallery in South Carolina still in existence, the Old Slave Mart was once part of a complex of buildings known as Ryan's Mart that occupied the land between Chalmers and Queen Streets. The complex consisted of a yard enclosed by a brick wall and contained three additional buildings: a four-story brick building partially containing a "barracoon," or slave jail, a kitchen, and a "dead house," or morgue."

Another nice hotel where we watched several more Christmas movies when we got in early from our daily activities.

Our last stop in Charleston was Patriots Point, home of the USS Yorktown, and viewpoint for Fort Sumter. "Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry sea fort located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots that started the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.^["

^"USS Yorktown (CV/CVA/CVS-10) is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. She is named after the Battle of Yorktown of the American Revolutionary War, and is the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. Initially to have been named Bon Homme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while under construction to commemorate USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Yorktown was commissioned in April 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). She was recommissioned too late to participate in the Korean War but served for many years in the Pacific, including duty in the Vietnam War, in which she earned five battle stars. Late in her career she served as a recovery ship for the Apollo 8 space mission, was used in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! which recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and in the science fiction film The Philadelphia Experiment."

Carried 380 officers, 3,088 enlisted men and an air group of 90 planes.

There were several displays on "Smokey" Stover, I'm curious to learn more about him.

They always have to see the jail.

The ship was huge so of course it had EVERYTHING you could seemingly need. A barber shop, dentist, doctor etc.

Sleeping quarters.

Wash room.

I don't think I'd be too excited to go to this dentist for any major work.

Jeremy entertained Quincy while I took the girls through the USS Clamagore. "USS Clamagore (SS-343) was a Balao-class submarine of the United States Navy, built in 1945 and still in training when World War II ended."

Our final boat was the USS Laffey. "While operating off Okinawa on APril 16, 1945, Laffey was assailed by a massive air strike of 22 Japanese bombers and suicide kamikazes. Five kamikazes and three bombs struck her and two bombs scored near misses. The ship earned the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die" for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when she successfully withstood a determined assault by conventional bombers and the most unrelenting kamikaze air attacks in history."

Once again we end up in a two room hotel with a nice little kitchen in Atlanta Georgia for a one night stay on our way home! This time we let the girls choose their room.