NAVY MINE-HUNTING SHIP VISITS CAPE GIRARDEAU

With its fluttering, colorful flags set off by metal-gray paint, the Navy mine-hunting ship USS Black Hawk docked at Riverfront Park Friday morning and will be open for public tours this weekend.

The ship, a 188-foot-long, 36-foot-wide MHC 51 (Osprey) class, is normally at home in coastal ocean waters. But the Black Hawk is cruising the Mississippi River to promote greater awareness of the Navy's capabilities in the land-locked Midwest and serve as a recruiting tool, said Cmdr. Brad Smith, commanding officer of the Black Hawk.

"This is the first time the Navy has organized a tour on the Mississippi. We wanted to show off the ship to places that don't normally get to see Navy vessels," Smith said. "It's also been helpful in recruiting because we can make good, solid contact."

Cape Girardeau is the fifth stop on the tour, which began June 2 in Baton Rouge, La., will go as far north as St. Louis (June 30-July 5), and then go back down the river to New Orleans where the tour will end July 21.

The ship will be open for public tours from 1 to 5 p.m. today and Sunday, with a Navy band performing by the north floodgate during the tours, said Lt. Warren Cupps, a coordinator for the Mississippi tour. There will be an opening ceremony at 1 p.m. today.

Special group and VIP tours will be conducted from 9 to 11 a.m. today through Tuesday. For information on arranging a special group tour, call Cupps at (573) 270-4602 or Chief Petty Officer Sharon Fletcher at (314) 324-5918.

On the tour, the public can inspect the ship, which is made of fiberglass to reduce its magnetic and acoustic signatures, each of which can activate mines, Smith said.

Tour-goers also will see El Duke, the Black Hawk's mine neutralization vehicle. The 15-foot bright-orange remote-control unmanned submersible, which has eyes and a shark-toothed grin painted on its nose, is equipped with sonar and cameras to identify mines. It also has the capability of snipping the cable holding moored mines and disabling bottom-set mines with a bomblet.

Near El Duke are the shells of two types of mines: a moored mine and a bottom mine. Each is about five feet long and shaped like a bullet.

On an upper deck, tour-goers can look at the two 50-caliber machine guns that are the ship's protection against small vessels and low-flying aircraft. Nearby are barrel-shaped containers that hold life rafts. Each container, about four feet long and two feet in diameter, hold a life raft that seats 25 and enough food for three days.

The tour also goes through the pilot house, which is filled with the sonar, radar, depth- finding, navigation and communication equipment used to get the ship from port to port as well as monitors that let those on the bridge know what's happening with the mine-hunting equipment below.

Some of the 50 crew members from the ship will give the tours and answer questions people might have about the ship or the Navy, Smith said.

About 15,000 people have toured the Black Hawk during its first four stops on the tour. From the reaction of people in the park during the docking, the ship will be popular here as well.

"Look at the size of that," said a woman as she walked through the Broadway entrance of the floodwall and saw the Black Hawk for the first time.

The time in port gives the crew members a brief rest from sailing duties. While in Cape Girardeau, crew members will visit the Missouri Veterans Home on Monday and attend a golf tournament and picnic hosted by VFW Post 3838.