The Zumwalt is the largest and most expensive destroyer the US Navy has ever built. During trials, it headed to sea during a snowstorm. On its way to its christening, it headed into the remnants of Hurricane Hermine.
But the strong waves would not deter the ship or the crew from heading to Baltimore for the christening and then on to her home port in San Diego.
Captain James Kirk said that the sailors enjoyed themselves while training during the building of the ship. Now, though, it’s time to get to work.
“It’s time for us to do our job at sea,” he said.
The sleek, 610-foot destroyer looks like no other ship in the fleet.
It has an angular appearance to reduce its radar signature. It also features a wave-piercing hull, electric propulsion, and a composite deckhouse which contains the radar and sensors. It has a new gun system that can fire rocket-powered shells up to 63 nautical miles.
Then there are the comparisons to the Starship Enterprise and its fictional Captain Kirk, Popular Mechanics reported.
The real life Kirk, named for his grandfather, is used to the jokes.
“Certainly I have been ribbed every now and then with someone saying, ‘Yes, you’re going where no man has gone before, on this class of ship,'” Kirk joked, referring to the line from the “Star Trek” TV series.