There is something else that you might want to bring up to the Rick, docents do have a good bit of use.. The Slater calls them their tour guides and has them learn the boat prior to giving any tours and they do quite well, others use the hand held wands that describe the compartments as you go through them and yes even the open boat tour happens also. Our docents open the boat at the morning and then close her up at night and make sure that she is clean when the sleep overs are done and ready to go (along with staying overnight with them)
For those whom don't know about the Slater she is a WWII DE that is the last one afloat in the US and after her service with the US she went to Greece and then returned home where she sat and rotted in NY until the current group was able to get her to Albany where she has become the show piece of the museum community.
Side note to the Slater they currently OWN the title to that ship so NAVSEA can't say anything about what they do to her but they are keeping with the HNSA guidelines and have done a FANTASTIC job in restoring a ship that was once nearly too far gone to save (kinda like the Cavalla) the only other group that I know of and is FULLY operational and sails on her own power is the LST 325 and she was also brought back from Greece a number of years ago by an aging crew and she also has become a show piece of the LST community and for the WWII generation.
The website addy for the Slater is:
www.ussslater.org and LST 325's is:
www.lstmemorial.orgThese are both fantastic sites for those who are just now entering into this arena and would like to see what the Skimmer community has been able to do with two very unique ships that were written off as scrap more then once.
