USS Recruit (1917): The Wooden Dreadnought in Manhattan's Union Square | Hacker News Reader

USS Recruit (1917): The Wooden Dreadnought in Manhattan's Union Square

warhistoryonline.com

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I love the dazzle camo, it really does make the 'ship' hard to recognize as a ship.

Maybe not effective for it's intended purpose of frustrating the use of optical rangefinders, but it sure looked cool.

Is this real? I've been through Union Square 10,000 times over the past 20 years and never heard mention of it.

Nope. Its successor is still in San Diego though https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Recruit_(TDE-1)

You sure about that? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Recruit_(1917)

I don't think you read the linked article. Yes, there have been several "USS Recruits" at various bases which have hosted Navy boot camps over the years. One is in San Diego at Liberty Station, a mixed-use development which used to be Naval Training Center San Diego and is now anchored by a Stone brewpub.

Source: I served in San Diego in the reserves, did detachments there while on active duty, quaffed quite a few pints at said Stone brewpub, and have walked around the "ship."

You are in agreement then.

evbogue wrote:

> Is this real?

thisismyaccoun7 replied:

> Nope.

Implying that the one in NY did not exist. Hence thatfunkymunki‘s confusion. They are not the one who didn’t “read the linked article”.

I’m confused. Are you saying the NY ship did, or didn’t exist?

They both existed. The New York one is completely gone. The San Diego one still physically exists as a museum "ship".

Wow! You can see Barnes and Noble from that photo. Never knew about it, now I know.

The successor to that one is the USS Trayer. It's at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. It's a 2/3 scale Navy destroyer, indoors, in a water tank alongside a pier. It's not just a mockup; it's a large-scale simulator, and most of the equipment works. New Navy recruits go through a 12-hour training exercise on the ship, called "Battle Stations 21". The Navy doesn't give out full details, but fire and flooding are involved.

At ⅔ scale, does that mean taller seamen are going to find things a bit cramped?

It is shorter bow to stern. Rooms are normal vertically.

There's a somewhat similar sort of thing in New Jersey for development/training (not recruiting afaik), basically a warehouse with the superstructure of a cruiser/destroyer sitting on top of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Rancocas

> Nope.

I'm guessing you just misinterpreted the parent's comment -- you didn't intend to mean that it's not real, right?

I think they meant it’s not there anymore.

> ”When the First World War came to an end, the USS Recruit stayed put for another two years. However, as Christenson explains, 'By 1920, the United States had the largest Navy in the world in terms of sailors, and there was less of a need for them with the end of World War I.' As such, the ship’s flag was lowered on March 16, 1920, and she was decommissioned and dismantled."

well yes, I assumed it was gone by the time I wandered through Union Square. I just feel like I should have seen a memo printed into metal about it at some point during my journeys.

Nah; it was an army recruitment stunt, not like a monument or whatever. People don't usually leave markers for temporary marketing stunts like this.

"was only there for three years" a century ago.

There are so many photos of it in the article…

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