Evening star., 1943-01-22
New Yorktown Lies
In Fitting Dock After
Premature Launching
Mrs. Roosevelt Quickly
Acts as Carrier Storts
Slide Five Minutes EorIy
BY CLAUDE A. MAHONEY,
Star staff Correspondent.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va, Jan. %.
The new 25.00O-ton carrier York
town lay in q fitting dock here today
after a premature launching yes
terday that caught the sponsor un-
aware and disrupted the entire pro-
gram of ceremonial launching
oratory.
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, wife
of the President and sponsor of the
former Yorktown that was lost last
summer in the Pacific, was stand
ing in readiness with the cham
pagne bottle while Rear Admiral
Elliott Buckmaster, skipper Of the
former carrier, was making the
first speech of the day.
About the time Rear Admiral
Buckmaster was half through his
prepared address the one-minute
whistle blew and was quickly fol-
lowed by the launching whistle.
The ship began to move. Mrs.
Roosevelt swung, not hard enough,
and the bottle bounced back Rear
Admiral Buckmaster kept on read
Grabs Bottle on Rebound.
Making a great catch of the
swinging bottle on the rebound,
Mrs. Roosevelt swung it again, this
time smashing it completely and
spraying champagne over the Of
fetal party. Rear Admiral Buck
master stopped in the middle Of his
speech, and the radio announcers
told their audiences what had hap
pened. Mrs. Roosevelt was so ex-
cited she forgot to say Il christen
thee Yorktown"
A sudden decision was made not
to resume the radio hookups, and
so the address of Artemus l.. Gates,
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for
Air, was not made. Mr.. Gates, who
had prepared manuscript telling
of the part aircraft carriers and
their planes had played in the
African invasion, assured reporters
that his remarks STOOD" though not
delivered
Rear Admiral o. L. Cox, super
intendent of construction for the
5th Naval District, explained that
the ship started down the ways 5
minutes early because the pressure
in the launching mechanism reached
the proper level sooner than was
anticipated. Preparations to bring
this pressure to the launching level
began at am. yesterday morning,
he said, and a slip-up of minutes
was not unnatural.
Yards Heaviest Ship.
Further, he said, the Yorktown,
more nearly completed than most
ships at launching time was, by
1000 tons, the heaviest ship ever
launched from the yards of the
Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry
dock Co. He emphasized that ships
destined to be heavier when COM
pleted had been launched there, but
that the speeded-up program had
put more equipment an this one
before launching than was usual.
He also said there we're no luxuries
on this ship, such as running water
in Staterooms, and that the saving
in man hours effected in that man
ner had aided in speeding the con-
struction.
Mrs. Roosevelt, whose quick catch
of the swinging bottle and fast
smash of it on her second try saved
the ship from what Navy men re-
gard as bad luck, said later that
she was surprised to see the vessel
begin to move early. She said she
was so glad" to be able to catch
the bottle and make the second
and successful try. She received
congratulations from Navy officials
for her cool actions in retrieving
the bottle for the second swing.
The Yorktown was started as the
Bon Homme Richard, but the name
was changed to honor the lost car
rier Yorktown. 1t is the fourth of
its class to be launched since Pearl
Harbor.
The undelivered address of Mr..
Gates told of the versatile work of
the carriers and planes in the Afri-
can landing, revealing for the first
time that carrier-based planes made
attacks on hattleships, almost all
other types Of vessels, and shore in
stallations and even spotted tor
pedoes and warned ships in time
for dodging.
Naval officials and newspaper
and radio representatives flew here
from Washington for the launching.
The Navy men included Rear Ad-
miral G. L. Rowcliffe, member of
the General Board of the Navy.