A hook for a possible adventure

[Southernap]

The NS Savannah (https://maritime.org/tour/savannah/)

Two minute video from Youtube of the NS Savannah (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP-XjI_qKrI)

So thinking about some naval ships, here is one for you GM's looking for an interesting adventure and maybe have a fun way to have your players go in a sea cruise. From 1981 till 1994 (In the real life time line) the NS Savannah was at Patriot's Point in Charleston, SC as a museum ship, but was supposed to be available in 180 days of activation in the time of war to become a cargo ship (just like any other NRDF fleet ship). Then she had a huge dry dock bill that the Patriot's Point trust couldn't afford and MARAD pulled her back and laid her up at Newport News, VA from 1994 till 2006. When she was moved to SF and the piers there.

So one could say that maybe someone recognizing that the war is coming pulls the Savannah from Charleston and send her instead of towards Newport News for record of her reactor, maybe around to either Long Beach, CA or maybe up to Bremerton, WA where the other two nuclear support yards were located at the time. However, after the Thanksgiving massacre she was laid up in some harbor out of the way and doing like the USS City of Corpus Christi was doing, supplying power to the region and acting as a defensible cache for supplies.

[Spartan-117]

Thanks, this is good stuff. I lived in Charleston from 94 to 95 and visited Patriot's Point several times. You had to really want to get there from Charleston, because the Ravenel bridge hadn't been built and that old bridge was always a white knuckle experience.

Anyway, I didn't realize the Savannah was supposed to be available for activation. It looked pretty dated and I figured it was just as likely to be activated as the Yorktown or Clamagore... ;) Could be an interesting ride for a 'last ship' kind of adventure.

[Gunner]

VERY interesting, and I should have thought of it myself (I'm a former maritime museum curator AND I work for MARAD, who owns NS Savannah... I don't work for that part of MARAD.)

I agree that given a T2K timeline, Savannah would have been drydocked and refueled in 1994. Heck, a referee could put her almost anywhere in the world, under either CIVGOV or MILGOV control, depending on the backstory...

[Tegyrius]

It suppose it would be frightfully impractical in the age of the fast attack boat, but I kind of like the idea of Savannah being refitted in the mid-'90s as a revitalization of the National Emergency Command Post Afloat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Emergency_Command_Post_Afloat) concept or a similar continuity of government role.

- C.

[Vespers War]

Charleston might actually be a good place to refuel her, because one of the few places that makes appropriate low-enriched uranium is Westinghouse's Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in Hopkins, SC. The only one on the West Coast is Framatome, in Richland, WA (just outside Kennewick). You could mix HEU with LEU or UEU to get an appropriate enrichment level, but I don't think there'd be much HEU to spare in a Twilight War scenario.

Assuming it fueled in Charleston and the Navy Yard there couldn't do the rest of a refit, that could take place up the coast at Sparrows Point Shipyard, which has a graving dock for supertankers and was still part of Bethlehem Steel until the mid to late 90s.

[mpipes]

What if you forgo refueling? Does that just mean you can operate the reactor, but the power output suffers (not as hot so less steam pressure).

[Vespers War]

What if you forgo refueling? Does that just mean you can operate the reactor, but the power output suffers (not as hot so less steam pressure).

In this case, no. All of the fuel rods were removed, so the reactor is nonfunctional until refueled (and partially rebuilt - the primary water loop was removed along with a few other components when the ship was mothballed).

[Southernap]

Charleston might actually be a good place to refuel her, because one of the few places that makes appropriate low-enriched uranium is Westinghouse's Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in Hopkins, SC. The only one on the West Coast is Framatome, in Richland, WA (just outside Kennewick). You could mix HEU with LEU or UEU to get an appropriate enrichment level, but I don't think there'd be much HEU to spare in a Twilight War scenario.

Assuming it fueled in Charleston and the Navy Yard there couldn't do the rest of a refit, that could take place up the coast at Sparrows Point Shipyard, which has a graving dock for supertankers and was still part of Bethlehem Steel until the mid to late 90s.

Well Charleston is damaged in the Thanksgiving massacre in 1997, by a .5 Mt bombing that was supposed to damage the Naval Shipyard. So, again the only other places that I know of would be Newport News, Bremerton, and Long Beach that are nuclear refueling capable.

That is why I was thinking that the ship was being dragged someplace and left in some bay and some town near that bay, cove, etc. Would have found the Savannah.

[Vespers War]

Well Charleston is damaged in the Thanksgiving massacre in 1997, by a .5 Mt bombing that was supposed to damage the Naval Shipyard. So, again the only other places that I know of would be Newport News, Bremerton, and Long Beach that are nuclear refueling capable.

That is why I was thinking that the ship was being dragged someplace and left in some bay and some town near that bay, cove, etc. Would have found the Savannah.

I don't think the resources will be available in the late war to tow a single merchant vessel vast distances to refuel it. In my opinion, the options are either Newport News or move the refueling to an earlier date, at which point Charleston makes as much sense as anywhere else.

[mpipes]

Doesn't Pascagoula, MS have nuclear refueling capability? Or King's Bay, GA?