Bidding Bon Voyage to a National Historic Landmark

An important duty of the State Historic Preservation Office is to organize and host meetings for the South Carolina State Board of Review for the National Register of Historic Places. At its last meeting the board voted to recommend the addition of four properties (two plantations and two historic schools) to the National Register. Then in the last item of business, board members considered a request that was extraordinary.

The board was asked to approve the transfer of a National Historic Landmark from one state to another. The landmark in question is the USCGC Ingham (WPG-35), a Coast Guard cutter that served in both World War II and Vietnam, and which had been part of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant. Patriots Point can no longer afford necessary maintenance on the Ingham, so it wished to transfer ownership of the ship to the Miami-Dade Historical Maritime Museum in Key West. Patriots Point noted that Key West would be a historically appropriate setting for the ship, since the Ingham played a major role in the 1980 Mariel Boatlift.

The board gave its blessing to the transfer, though the ship was already in transit to Key West. We can only guess what would have happened if the board had denied the request. A more pressing question is what will happen when the state is faced with repair bills, which are estimated at over $100 million, on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. In the current economic climate, will the state continue to pay to maintain the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Laffey, and the submarine USS Clamagore, or will we bid bon voyage to the remaining floating Historic Landmarks in South Carolina? This is the question of the week for Anonymous, who comments on so many of our blogs. We know that you won’t let us down.