Yorktown’s participation began on Octowhen she left Tokyo back for Okinawa. Many ships, including Yorktown were pressed into the “bring em home” service. With Magic Carpet ships being empty eastbound, more than 400,000 German and Italian prisoners were repatriated, however rubble-strewn their nations may have been. The transatlantic movement went both ways. Said more than one serviceman, “When we walked off that boat we were pretty rank- but nobody cared!” Water-always at a premium aboard ship-was strictly rationed. Bunks were welded three, four, and even five high, with round the clock meal schedules. Whatever the type of ship, the accommodations were steerage class. Meanwhile, 29 transports shuttled from the Far East, delivering China-Burma-India veterans to loved ones. Some 350 Pacific Fleet vessels were employed, everything from transports and hospital ships to battleships and cruisers. The brand new Essex class ship, Lake Champlain (CV-39), was modified for Atlantic use, and the battle-scarred, invaluable Enterprise (CV-6) made Carpet cruises in both directions.Īfter Japan’s unexpected capitulation in September, the Navy swung into action with ships to spare.
Army, carrying some 430,000 men to the East Coast per month.įleet aircraft carriers were popular Magic Carpet rides, as they could accommodate 3,000 or more returnees. With the Navy fully committed to the Pacific, most of the shipping came from the Merchant Marine or the U.S. The first “Magic Carpet” ships left Europe in June 1945, barely a month after VE Day. It was an enormous task, sardonically cited by cartoonist Bill Mauldin who showed the everyman GIs Willie and Joe sulking at an embarkation port: “I don’t remember no delays getting us over here.” As early as 1943, the Pentagon began contingency planning for returning millions of personnel from overseas whenever victory was won. Sail area (main & asymmetric): 14,208sq.ft.Every old sailor is familiar with the “Magic Carpet” business at the end of World War II when personnel were ferried back to the States from both Europe and the Pacific. Think how much faster we could go.”įor more information: +377 93 10 00 93 But I do admit, it would be nice if we could use hydrofoils. Asked whether there is anything he’d do to improve the yacht’s performance, he ponders for a minute and says, “I cannot imagine a life without this sort of challenge in it.
He flicks his wrist a fraction and the speed increases by half a knot. Owen-Jones takes back the wheel and his eyes dart up to the telltales fluttering on the headsail. We cannot help but notice the clatter of the engine when underway and we comment accordingly. This yacht has everything she needs to make a comfortable cruising holiday home. If anything is missing from her comprehensive inventory, the casual onlooker is not going to spot it. There are two reasons for this: The first is that every bulkhead gives the boat structural strength and you would harm that by drilling holes through it the second is that to run the cable down to the ordinary level of a light switch means more wiring, and every inch of wire weighs something.”īelowdecks, she is quite the cruising yacht. We made the wash basins from carbon, we used an ash veneer on a honeycomb core to make the furniture, and we even put the light switches in the deckhead. “That means everything has to weigh nothing at the start. “The Wally race rules state clearly that before racing, you cannot remove anything that is normally kept on board,” Bassani says. Luca Bassani, the designer, likes to rock the boat when it comes to creating uncluttered and eye-catching craft with a distinctive Wally look.
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