Brooklynites gathered along the waterfront to welcome more than a dozen vessels rolling underneath the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge and into New York Harbor for the first day of Fleet Week on May 25.
Gunners at Fort Hamilton greeted the caravan of ships with an 11-gun salute, although the ships did not return the greeting this year, unlike in years past. A spokesman at the base said it was unclear why they did not return the salute, and speculated it could be because the lead ship — the amphibious assault craft USS Bataan — does not have the guns available for a salute.
Besides the Bataan, which resembles a small aircraft carrier, two American destroyers, three Canadian Navy ships, patrol boats, a landing ship, a Coast Guard buoy tender and cutter, and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit came to town for Fleet Week. Two United States Navy destroyers and the Coast Guard Cutter spent the week docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.
