Why, or how did the ship end up in New York?

This is excellent information, thank you.

You're right about the Montana class battleships. If built they would have had a beam of 120 feet. All the lock chambers; Gatun Lock, Miraflores Lock, and Pedro Miguel Lock, of the Panama Canal are 110 feet wide. The Iowa Class, and South Dakota Class battleships have a 108 ft beam at the widest point amidships. So could naturally squeeze through with one foot to spare both port and starboard. I am English; a former merchant seaman out of the Port of Liverpool and passed through the Panama Canal eastbound and westbound to the West Coast of South America for many years. In 1950 we passed USS Missouri squeezing through the Gatun Locks heading for the Pacific shortly after the Korean War broke out. We were homeward bound through the same lock. And in case you may not be aware. The three Midway Class carriers completed just after World War Two, with a 136 feet extreme beam were, obviously, too large to transit the canal. And that, of course, goes for all those super carriers built from the nineteen-fifties onwards. I got talking to a Chief Petty Officer Quatermaster off one of those Midway Class carriers in Valparaiso, Chile in 1957. He sailed on her from the Atlantic to the Pacific via Cape Horn.
Nice talking to you.
All the best and happy days smiley-39.

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Except if you look again at the movie you'll see a big "13" on the flight deck of that carrier. And the return to New York (Brooklyn Navy Yard) squares with the Franklin story. So it seems that they meant to tell the Franklin story even if they got the detail of the attack location/timing wrong.

The fictional depiction in the film is a composite treatment of both kamikaze incidents. Bunker Hill was damaged off Okinawa, but Franklin is the carrier in the footage, damaged two months earlier. Bunker Hill indeed went to Bremeton, and was back in service four months later. Franklin went to Brooklyn because the west coast yards were clogged with damaged ships and she needed lengthy repairs. She too eventually went back in service, altho neither carrier ever served as a first line fleet carrier again.

A few corrections. "Big Ben" is Franklin's nickname, but she was christened USS Franklin, not USS Ben Franklin. There is no Pittsburgh Navy Yard--the USS Pittsburgh towed Franklin until she could get up steam, but she sailed to the forward base at Ulithi and then to Pearl under her own power, before going on to Brooklyn.

I think it's supposed to be the Franklin. When Scott assumes command, you can see the hull number 13 on the flight deck. The "Big Ben" did sail back to New York by way of Ulithi, then Pearl. The Franklin was also an Essex class (there were 24 built). Also, at least some of the combat footage (after the kamikaze) used in the movie is definitely the Franklin.

From what I read, the reason for New York instead of a California or Washington port was that the west coast ports were already full up with repair jobs from kamikaze attacks.

After seeing the movie this past Memorial Day, I noted the following:
1. Since the damage to Scott's ship occured at Okinawa, it would be based on the Bunker Hill.
2. Some of the damage footage is the Franklin, as is the overhead shot when Scott assumes command.
3. The shot of Adm. Pete Richard on the island of the Yorktown, waiting for the US strike to return at Midway,shows the flight deck with the number "36" clearly visible. This would be the USS Antietam, also an Essex class.

The question isn't "What carrier is the movie derived from?", but rather "What would the movie be without the Essex class carriers?"

Just watched the movie this afternoon myself and was thinking the same thing not knowing the history. But I reasoned that they took her there because there were only so many Navy Yards and A lot of ships to repair at that time in the war.


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