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All Aboard For 'Best View In Town' Of July 4th Fireworks

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By JESSICA DaSILVA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 3, 2008

Updated: 07/03/2008 07:19 am

TAMPA - Fireworks fanatics, consider this: For as little as $5, you can get front-row seats Friday on the USS American Victory, less than 100 yards from the pyrotechnics barge.

The ship is in the Channel District and will open at 10 a.m. For $10, visitors get all-day access to tour the ship and return to see the fireworks at 9 p.m. Reduced rates are available for children 12 and younger, and tickets will be $5 after 5 p.m.

Picnic-style food will go on sale at 3 p.m., and the band 23 Skidoo will start at 6:30 p.m.

"What better way to celebrate July Fourth than to see fireworks from the best view in town and help us maintain this memorial to pay respect to merchant mariners," said Kurt Voss, the ship's operations director.

The ship was built in 1945, just in time for the tail end of World War II. It carried cargo to Great Britain to aid the Allied forces and was revamped later to carry cargo during the Korean and Vietnam wars. After that, the ship was "put in mothballs" until a graduate of the State University of New York Maritime College began an effort to bring it to the Tampa Bay area in 1999, Voss said.

Reporter Jessica DaSilva can be reached at (813) 259-7851 or jdasilva@tampatrib.com.

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