Chesapeake!

Cruising the Chesapeake

by Mary Jo

A vacation!  A real vacation!  The Mayhem Consultant and I are recently returned from a 10 day cruise of the Chesapeake Bay with a Revolutionary War theme. 

The cruise was with American Cruise Lines, a small ship cruise company that operates entirely within the US, including having ships built in Maryland and an all-American crew.  In these uncertain times, all passengers and crew had to be fully vaccinated and other safety protocols were followed.  We all obeyed because a real vacation was so lovely.

 

We'd done other ACL cruises and knew that the food and service would be very good, plus this cruise started and ended in Baltimore and we had only a half hour drive to board the ship. So after a year of grim writing stress, we boarded the American Constitution, were lured into the dining room for lunch the moment we stepped on the ship, and off we all sailed to Norfolk and the extreme south end of the Bay. (Picture below is of our ship docked in Norfolk.)

This cruise had a Revolutionary War theme, but because there is a lot of American history around the Bay, we visited a variety of sites of all eras. The Revolutionary theme played out in a number of ways.  For example, every day a different historical movie played continuously on a ship channel. 

One such movie was the musical 1776, based on a Broadway play about the creation and signing of the Declaration.  There was music and humor and a very perky Benjamin Franklin, but there was also real history about the conflicts involved in reaching the momentous decision to declare independence from Great Britain.  Entertaining, and by the end, very moving. 

Other movie days were devoted to the miniseries about John Adams, a Founding Father and future president. Another day's feature was The Crossing, about Washington crossing the Delaware at a time when the revolution as on the verge of collapse and the army desperately needed a victory.  He famously managed to get his army across the Delaware River on Christmas night, and early the next morning his ragged troops attacked the Hessians who occupied Trenton and had spent Christmas day feasting and drinking. The Continental soldiers captured all the Hessians with minimal American casualties and Washington had the victory he needed. 

Our first stop was Norfolk at the south end of the bay.  The Naval Station Norfolk is the largest naval base in the world.  Founded in 1917 for WWI, it's obviously not Revolutionary, but it's impressive.  While we didn't visit the base proper, our little ship was parked on the opposite side of the pier from the retired battleship Wisconsin, one of the grand fighting ships of the US Navy and now a museum open to the public.

The Wisconsin was commissioned to be built immediately after Pearl Harbor and was completed in 39 months, amazingly fast for a ship so large.  And there the battleship was, literally a stone's throw away from where were docked! Even before our ship moored at the dock, the MC had identified the Wisconsin because of the size of the guns.  (He knows things like that. <g>)

The ship's tour was fascinating, and Norfolk itself turned out to be an interesting city.  A visit to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens showed us more varieties of blooming azaleas than I'd ever seen in my life.

Then we headed north with our next stop at Yorktown which is part of the Colonial History National Park along with Jamestown and Williamsburg, a famous early colonial city and one time capital of Virginia.  We'd visited Colonial Williamsburg before (the historic district is a living history museum site and well worth a visit) so we opted to visit Yorktown instead. 

I liked this statue grouping that shows Washington and Lafayette and I'm told that the third figure was the French Admiral DeGrasse-Tilly. The leader of the defeated British troops was General Lord Cornwallis.  When it came time for the formal surrender, Cornwallis pleaded illness and sent a subordinate officer, a colonel, to take his place. He didn't want his sword to be delivered to a traitorous rebel, but Rochambeau refused to accept the sword and insisted it be given to Washington.

Our day in Yorktown ended where three young people from a local drum and bugle corn marched down the pier and played for us. They were very good and fun, but why are they wearing British red uniforms?  I thought the US won!

I have lot more to say about this cruise and other sites we saw, so I'll blog later about the Chesapeake, part 2.

Mary Jo, ending with a picture of the sun setting in Norfolk

 

 

 

Comments

[Kathy Lynn Emerson]

What fun! And I’m glad to know the azalea gardens are still there. We lived in Norfolk for 3 1/2 years when my husband was in the Navy (1970-73) and frequent visits there were a very welcome retreat from the real world.

[Maryellen Webber]

Thanks Mary Jo for sharing your cruise with us! What a great way to experience American history. I look forward to your second post of your cruise.

[Alice Mathewson]

Hi Mary Jo. What a great excursion. Sometimes we don't see the stuff on our doorstep as we are so busy travelling overseas. And a lot of American history that as a Brit I don't know about. Thank you

[Sue McCormick]

My oldest grandchild lives in Yorktown with her husband and two daughters. And I have been there on vacations. When we live in grater NYC we often drove down to vistit my sister in Washingtond DC. I have often driven over the highway and the Bridge at Baltimore. Than you for taking me back.

[Mary T]

Oh goody! I was hoping you would take us along on your tour of the Chesapeake Bay. It is another place I always wanted to see but never made it to. Looking forward to part 2.

[Margaret]

Sounds marvelous, Mary Jo! Thanks so much for sharing!

[Carol Reynolds]

This looks wonderful. Also looking forward to the next segment.

[Annette N]

Thanks for the lovely descriptions and pictures. It is amazing when you consider this bunch of amateurs defeated the most impressive military machine of the time period.

This is a post I enjoyed even more then I normally do.

Hope everyone is well and happy and safe.

[Pat Dupuy]

I will have to look into that cruise! I've always wanted to do a Revolutionary War trail vacation.

[Pamela DG]

One of my favorite books growing up was Michener's "Chesapeake." I've visited the bay before, but have never fully explored it. I'll add it to my bucket list! The statue you admired is Washington, Lafayette, and Francois Joseph Paul, the Comte deGrasse, and Marquis DeGrasse-Tilly. At the time of Yorktown, he was the admiral of the French Fleet in the Chesapeake.

[Laura Resnick]

Sounds like an excellent voyage! (I love that movie, 1776. And I got to see the Broadway traveling company perform the play in Chicago when I was a child.)

[Mary Jo Putney]

Kathy, it just occurred to me that I should have included one of my azalea pictures! I'll do it now. We were there at peak azalea season--so many different colors! I can easily believe that the gardens were a wonderful escape from the real world.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Maryellen, seeing the actual places brings history alive as the history books never did!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Thanks, Alice. This blog has readers from all over the world, which is why I spelled out the American history that people from other nations wouldn't know. Of course, there is nowhere better than Britain for having marvelous things on one's doorstep!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Sue--how great to have well placed relatives! Yorktown has a very small population, so very cool that your granddaughter and her family actually live there. It was a charming town.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Mary T, I'm glad you enjoyed sharing the ride! This part of the world has a lot of layers of history.

[Mary Jo Putney]

You're welcome, Margaret! I love sharing my travels.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Carol, if you think you'd enjoy small ship cruising, it's worth taking a look at American Cruise Lines. I much prefer smaller ships for a lot of reasons, and ACL has a wide range of itineraries.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Annette, the more I study the Revolution, the more I realize what a stunning achievement it was. Not just the military win, which was amazing, but the way they created a nation and a new form of government out of whole cloth. The Constitution is a wonderful far sighted and adaptable document that still works very well more than two centuries later.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Pat, thoroughness would require adding in Boston and Philadelphia at the least, but this would be a great place to start!

[Karin]

I am dying to travel somewhere! How did the ship handle the meals, was it all served a la carte, instead of a buffet?

[Mary Jo Putney]

Pamela, the Chesapeake Bay is BIG. Lots to explore. Thanks for identifying the third figure in the grouping. It makes sense that it's Admirable deGrasse-Tilly, but I looked both on the site and online and couldn't find the name of the third man. Washington and Lafayette were easy to identify, but the admiral was elusive. (It could have been General Rochambeau, the commander of the French land forces.) It was a great victory, but the Americans could never have done it without the help of the French. (Who presumably decided to help us on the grounds of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." *G*)

[Mary Jo Putney]

Laura, it would have been fabulous to see the show live! I particularly like the debate over the egg, where Franklin asked what kind of bird they were hatching. He said a turkey, Adams said an eagle, Jefferson went for a dove. After several rounds of debate, the eagle won. *G*

[Mary Jo Putney]

Karin, buffets have pretty much vanished everywhere. We ordered from little menus that changed daily and offered a good variety of choices. The wait staff people were lovely, too.

[Kareni]

Mary Jo, thanks for sharing part of your Chesapeake adventures with us. It sounds like a wonderful trip!

[Margot]

Mary Jo thank you for this adventure. How exciting to travel down the Chesapeake Bay and then see all the significant places affected by the Revolutionary War. When I lived in the DC area we often took day trips to see various spots of interest but seeing it over days on a cruise sounds like the best way to do so. We always combined these excursions with bird watching as the Bay area is wonderful for that.

How many days was this cruise?

I lived in the SW corner of PA where there are many historic markers for Rev. War battles, forts, incidents, burials etc. As a teen these sights helped me understand the amazing feat becoming an independent country so large.
Looking forward to your next turn and more of your adventure.

[Mary Jo Putney]

It was! Not as exotic as some places we've traveled,but this is a very interesting part of the world.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Margot, it was a 10 day cruise, which is long enough to see a lot, though certainly not everything! Pennsylvania certainly has its share o history!