The USS Theodore Roosevelt, CVN 71 is known in the media as “Teddy” or “The Big Stick” but her crew calls it “the finest aircraft carrier in the world, and the finest team bar none!”

This impressive piece of floating metal had Cape Town and South Africa for that matter, in high emotions over the past few days. The arrival time was kept quiet. But when Cape Town woke up on Saturday morning on 04 October 2008, The USS Theodore Roosevelt had dropped anchor and greeted Capetonians from Table Bay.  For the first time in more than forty years an aircraft carrier was on an official visit – the last one being the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1967. It is only the second nuclear powered vessel allowed entrance to South Africa, the other being the German cargo ship the Otto Hahn in the mid 1970s.

 The South African Navy sent two RIVER class mine hunters as well as an inshore patrol vessel, the “SAS Tern”, to rendezvous with the USS Theodore Roosevelt some three nautical miles north of Robben Island. From published specifications, we all know that this is a very large vessel, but no one can prepare you for the sheer size and impressiveness of the vessel. One can describe it in one word: “Overwhelming” as it is more than 300 meters long.

More than 300 meters long