The 2011 Parade of Ships took place this weekend during Fleet Week San Francisco and the crowd went wild. The ships sailed into the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge starting at 11am on Saturday and berthed in San Francisco through today. San Francisco Fleet Week is celebrating 100 years of naval aviation in remembrance of Eugene B. Ely’s flight in his Curtiss pusher biplane which took off from Tanforan racetrack in San Bruno and was recovered by the USS Pennsylvania on the bay.
The USS Carl Vinson led the parade under the Golden Gate Bridge and gave a traditional cannon salute to San Francisco. We fired a salute back at her as she passed by land and headed towards the piers in order to berth for the remainder of fleet week at anchor.
She was followed by a parade of navy ships including the state-of-the-art USS Bonhomme Richard, the USS Antietam, USS Milius, USS Chief, USS Guadalupe, USCG Bertholf, USCG Alert, HMCS Ottawa, HMCS Saskatoon and the USS Jeramiah O’Brian.
The USS Bonhomme Richard, USS Antietam, USS Milius, USS Chief, USCG Bertholf, USCG Alert and the HMCS Ottawa were available for tours during Fleet Week which ends today. Tours of the ships end today between 12pm and 4pm.
To view photos of a few ships from the Parade of Ships as they emerged from the fog under the Golden Gate Bridge, please click on the slideshow to the left of this article.
