Road video and map<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nToday was very rewarding with two different, but excellent, stops en route from Williamsburg to Suffolk, VA. The first was at the opposite end of the Colonial Historic Parkway from Jamestown where you will find the Yorktown Battlefield unit of the Colonial National Historical Park<\/em>. Unlike Jamestown, which is swampy and has largely swallowed its history, Yorktown battlefield, the site of the final defeat of the British by 7,000 American and French soldiers, is much better preserved than most civil war battlefields I have seen. The visitor center has the customary film to explain the events that took place here and there is also a small museum displaying two of the original tents used by Washington during the revolutionary war, a small one he used as his sleeping quarters and a much bigger one used as his war room. These valuable artifacts are displayed behind glass with very low level lighting and, unfortunately, it was impossible to get a picture due to reflections of the bright lights elsewhere. The battle was basically an encirclement and bombardment by the Americans and French of the British forces that were in Yorktown. They were greatly aided by the French navy which prevented the Royal Navy from reinforcing the garrison or providing a means of escape. The British commander, Cornwallis, surrendered his men and equipment and this lead to the Treaty of Paris whereby the US gained its independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA signposted tour of important battlefield sites, which are surprisingly well preserved, allows visitors to envisage the events.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is what the original trenches that have not been restored look like now. This is an American line of bombardment that was just 400 yards away from the defending British lines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe National Park Service is restoring these trenches to their, likely, original state and this is a restored French line of bombardment with some of the cannons that were used.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis is the field where the British finally surrendered. Each walked between lines of American and French troops (where the fences are) and laid down their weapons in the field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe spoils of war, a display of the cannons surrendered by the British.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMy other stop was at The Mariners’ Museum and Park<\/em> in Newport News, VA. This is a private museum funded by a foundation formed by the Huntington family who were the wealthy family that founded Huntington Shipyards (now called Newport News Shipbuilders since a merger) that is the only builder of aircraft carriers for the US Navy and the biggest industrial employer in Virginia. The shipyards were founded in 1886 and the museum was founded in 1930 and has since been designated as the National Maritime Museum by Congress. The complex includes the world’s largest maritime library, a maritime conservation and preservation lab, a collection of over 30,000 maritime artifacts, and a 550 acre park. I will use photos to describe my highlights as there is far too much to describe fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is a corner of the research lab that is attempting to preserve the remains of the USS Monitor, a civil war ironclad that was recovered from the floor of the Atlantic in 2002. It was one of the first ships to use iron cladding and was the first warship to use a rotating turret to allow its cannons to be fired in any direction instead of simply firing through portals in the side of the ship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis is a cutaway replica of the gun turret on the Monitor. The actual turret is stored underwater in a giant tank in the lab to prevent the corrosion that would result from interaction with air from destroying it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nbut this is a replica of the condition of the actual turret.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMany unusual artifacts ranged from this giant figurehead (the human drawing is life sized) from the 1858 sailing ship USS Lancaster to the 2013 America’s Cup winning catamaran (which was too large to fit into a photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMany model ships were on display, including this one of the Japanese ship Fushimi Maru which, in 1941, was ceremonially donated to the museum in the presence of US and Japanese diplomats who had traveled from Washington just one month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAfter spending 2 1\/2 hours in the museum I feel I got my money’s worth from this visit – especially since the admission fee is $1. I then took a short walk part way along the 5 mile Noland Trail in the park. The trail circumnavigates a lake and is in wonderful condition. Both the museum and park are examples of what can be done when resources are plentiful. It’s no wonder this is one of the most highly rated museums I have seen on TripAdvisor.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMonday March 20, 2023 Road video and map Today was very rewarding with two different, but excellent, stops en route from Williamsburg to Suffolk, VA. The first was at the opposite end of the Colonial Historic Parkway from Jamestown where you will find the Yorktown Battlefield unit of the Colonial National Historical Park. Unlike Jamestown, … Continue reading The Colonists’ final victory and a great museum<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[96,3],"tags":[54],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4081"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4096,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions\/4096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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