2023 Reunion Events

Web Page Author: Bill Fenton Date: July 12, 2023 Last Update: July 15, 2023 file name: 2023events.shtml --> 2023 Reunion Events

Castle Hill light house, Newport, RI

Reunion Hotel Information

Warwick, RI - 2023

First day of Reunion Tours

Monday, October 2: Arrival, check in and get reacquainted with shipmates. Hospitality room opens at 10:00 AM.

Tuesday, October 3: $70, 9:30 AM Departure to Newport, Rhode Island.

At 9:30 AM our luxurious air conditioned motor coach departs our hotel to whisk us to Cornelius Vanderbuilt's "Breakers". In the late 1800s many wealthy New Yorkers escaped to Newport on "Rhode Island" during hot summers. As Newport became more popular and easier to reach with a passenger steamship route (New York / Fall River Line) the southern end of Newport expanded with summer escapees from Philadelphia and other summer heat soaked places along the East Coast. This summer "neighborhood" emerged when New York families starting around 1850 decided to build "summer cottages" each larger than the other. The Breakers is a Gilded Age mansion built between 1893 and 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II. The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial pre-eminence in the Gilded Age. It was commissioned in 1893 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system and grandson of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the family fortune. The 70-room mansion, with a gross area of 125,339 square feet and 62,482 square feet of living area on five floors, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Renaissance Revival style. The footprint of the house covers approximately 1 acre or 43,000 square feet of the 14 acres estate on the cliffs overlooking Easton Bay of the Atlantic Ocean. Cornelius Vanderbilt II purchased the grounds in 1885 for $450,000 ($14.7 million today). The previous mansion on the property was owned by Pierre Lorillard IV; it burned on November 25, 1892. Vanderbilt died from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a stroke in 1899 at age 55, leaving The Breakers to his wife Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt. She outlived him by 35 years and died at the age of 89 in 1934.

Lunch is on your own at one of the many restaurants to be found along Thames Street, America's Cup Avenue or on Bannister's Wharf which has a plethora of shops, restaurants and outdoor cafes. The Wharf John Bannister built was the social and commercial lifeline to colonial Newport, the connector between an active harbor and an enterprising, young town. It was here that commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was received on his victorious return from the battle of Lake Erie in 1813 and it was Bannister's Wharf that hosted the successful 1977 America’s Cup defender, Ted Turner. The history of Bannister's Wharf has been an exciting one. It has been home and hostelry, a place to buy bread and a place to break bread. This is the place where people come to experience the ambiance that is expressly Newport. Clark Cooke House and The Black Pearl, both on Bannister's Wharf, are tourist draws but very expensive. Try one of the outdoor cafes in the area or the excellent Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant on Thames Street. It has a wide variety of offerings at reasonable prices for Newport. In general, restaurants on Thames Street are more reasonable than those on the wharfs.

Ocean Drive By the time the first Rolls Royces were made, the Ocean Drive segment was a perfect roadway for the wealthy summer crowd to best enjoy the cool onshore breeze while visiting their many friends. At one point an exclusive list... The Top 400 ... was maintained to define the right members of this well connected community. Today, Newport's Ten Mile Drive combines that history of a wealthy summer community with a fabulous Newport recreational treasure of public parks and miles of public access shoreline to rank as one of the most popular "drives" in the country. The "Drive" is way more than what you can see in a short and hurried 35 minute car trip over the route. Many of the home owners seek a quiet summer and have gone to great lengths to insure their tranquil settings. Closed gates are very common and trees are strategically allowed to grow in ways that enhance resident privacy. The famous Ten-Mile Drive is more than just the coastal Ocean Drive. Take the trip with your eye wide open as coastal scenery, stunning homes, and expansive water views pass by when you embark on a trip down Ocean Drive, one of the best scenic drives in the USA. The mansion on Ocean Drive pictured at right was purchased by Jay Leno.

Wednesday, October 4 $55, 9:30 AM Departure US Naval Submarine Base New London.

New London is the Navy's first Submarine Base and the "Home of the Submarine Force." The base’s beginnings were as a naval yard and storage depot. Established on April 11th 1868, the State of Connecticut gave the Navy 112 acres of land along the Thames River to build a Naval Station. Due to a lack of federal funding, it was not until 1872 that two brick buildings and a "T" shaped pier were constructed and officially declared a Navy Yard. By June 21, 1916, the mission of the yard was changed forever when Commander Yeates Stirling assumed command of the newly designated Submarine Base, The New London Submarine Flotilla, and Submarine School. With the war in Europe and the Atlantic, additional submarines and support craft arrived the following year and the facility was named the Navy's first Submarine Base. SUBASE New London currently occupies approximately 687 acres along the Thames River. The base has 11 submarine piers (9 SSN rated, 2 Adequate). The base also is home to more than 70 tenant commands and employs more than 9,500 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel. The Base has a Facebook Page which you can visit.

Lunch on the Base is included in the cost of the tour.

After lunch we will tour The Submarine Force Library and Museum. including a tour of the recently overhauled USS Nautilus (SSN 571).. The Submarine Force Museum, located on the Thames River in Groton, CT, maintains the world’s finest collection of submarine artifacts. It is the only submarine museum operated by the United States Navy, and as such is the primary repository for artifacts, documents and photographs relating to U.S. Submarine Force history. The museum traces the development of the “Silent Service” from David Bushnell’s Turtle, used in the Revolutionary War, to the Ohio and Virginia class submarines.

Originally established as “The Submarine Library” by Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in 1955, the Submarine Force Library and Museum soon gained respect for its archival and research value. In April 1964, the entire collection was donated to the Navy and relocated to the Naval Submarine Base, New London, Groton, Connecticut. The name “Submarine Force Library and Museum” was officially adopted in 1969.

The museum’s collections include more than 33,000 artifacts, 20,000 significant documents and 30,000 photographs. With so many holdings, the displays change frequently and a return visit will be a new experience. The 6,000 volume reference and research library is a world-renowned collection relative to the history of U.S. submarines and is open to anyone looking for information on submarines or submarine history.

On the morning of January 17, 1955, at 11 am EST, NAUTILUS’ first Commanding Officer, Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, “Underway On Nuclear Power.” Over the next several years, NAUTILUS shattered all submerged speed and distance records. CDR Anderson On July 23, 1958, NAUTILUS departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii under top secret orders to conduct “Operation Sunshine”, the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship. At 11:15 pm on August 3, 1958, NAUTILUS’ second Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Anderson, announced to his crew, “For the world, our country, and the Navy – the North Pole.” With 116 men aboard, NAUTILUS had accomplished the “impossible”, reaching the geographic North Pole – 90 degrees North.

In the spring of 1979, NAUTILUS set out from Groton, Connecticut on her final voyage. She reached Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California on May 26, 1979 – her last day underway. She was decommissioned on March 3, 1980 after a career spanning 25 years and over half a million miles steamed.

In recognition of her pioneering role in the practical use of nuclear power, NAUTILUS was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior on May 20, 1982. Following an extensive historic ship conversion at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, NAUTILUS was towed to Groton, Connecticut arriving on July 6, 1985.

On April 11, 1986, eighty-six years to the day after the birth of the Submarine Force, Historic Ship NAUTILUS, joined by the Submarine Force Museum, opened to the public as the first and finest exhibit of its kind in the world, providing an exciting, visible link between yesterday’s Submarine Force and the Submarine Force of tomorrow.

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