YORKTOWN GOES AROUND THE HORN OF SOUTH AMERICA.
Mossback certificate, permitting the new mossback permission to "spit to windward" although I always heard that I had permission as a Mossback to piss to windward. 7th Day February 1969.
Yorktown explorers doing something even Ferdinand Magellan missed! (Magellan did not round the Cape in 1520 but instead threaded his way through the narrow straits between Tiera del Fuego and the mainland of Chili)
Even though the Yorktown was constructed on the east coast, she entered the Pacific by going through the Panama Canal in 1943. When the Yorktown went through the Panama Canal hour were taken up to take off some Yorktown guns and the fit was so tight that ropes were placed along the side of the flight deck to keep it from hitting the canal sides. As the Yorktown reached middle age she had actually grown larger. The Yorktown started out as a straight flight deck carrier and the trip through the Panama Canal was very tight. With the modification to turn her into an angled flight deck carrier she could no longer fit through the canal.
So in 1969 the Yorktown finally went around the Horn as part of its 13,800 mile journey from Long Beach California to Norfolk Virginia. The Yorktown was 490 miles North of Antarctica.
CHILE NAVY OILER REFUELS
UNITED STATES SHIP YORKTOWN
The Yorktown was supposed to refuel while at anchor in Valparaiso Chili but the fuel barge was not available so the Yorktown was refueled by a oiler from the Chilean Navy. Almirante Jorge Montt (AO-52) came along side at dawn on Yorktown's second day out of Valparaiso with 933,877 gallons of black oil. The Yorktown was at only 24% fuel capacity. The unusual 12 hour un-rep put the Yorktown's fuel capacity at 83%. The Chilean people were warm and friendly to the sailors of the United States Navy during out liberty call and the Chilean Navy's courtesy to the Yorktown equaled that friendship.
Yorktown's Captain Fifield talks things over with two Chilean Navy Admirals