THE senior geeks among you will remember the "Altair 8800", possibly the world's first microcomputer, sold as a kit by the magazine, Popular Electronics. The Altair lit the fuse for the revolution of personal computers and its programme, Altair BASIC, was the software giant Microsoft's founding product. Altair itself is the twelfth brightest star in the night sky in the Aquila constellation in the northern Milky Way, a mere 99 trillion miles from Earth. For the Trekkies, Altair was also the name of a planet with an unstable political system in the same constellation, one of the destinations of the USS Enterprise in the year 2267, under the command of Captain Kirk.

The Altair of present interest is more down to earth, or rather down to the sea, a mother ship for a constellation of military stars, being destroyers of the United States Navy in the Second World War. The USS Altair had several tours of duty at the Naval Operating Base in Southampton during that war.

It is possibly the only United States warship to have left behind a souvenir of its time at Bermuda. The context for the coming of the USS Altair began several days before Britain declared war against Germany on September 3, 1939. In order that the United State did not become a belligerent, being automatically drawn into war with the Axis powers, a lease for Morgan's and Tucker's Island was agreed between Britain and the US before the declaration of war. The islands belonged to the Bermudian wife of Seward Johnson, a name known to all via the production of baby powder.

On 7 April 1941, American Forces arrived at Bermuda aboard the American Legion with men, guns and base-building machines. A part of the mainland in Southampton and Sandys Parish adjacent to Morgan's and Tucker's Island was commandeered and joined by land isthmuses to become the "Naval Operating Base", the first of two American stations at Bermuda. The delightful house, "Far Rockaway", sadly in dereliction, became home to Admiral Jules James, the first Commandant of the US NOB. It was on the verandah of "Far Rockaway" that the crew of the Altair planted their memento in pink concrete, art imitating a Bermuda beach.

The ship was laid down in December 1918 as the freighter Edisto at Seattle, Washington. It came under the eye of the US Navy as a potential collier, but was eventually brought into military service in November 1921, renamed the Altair and designated a destroyer tender.

The vessel was brought to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn for its conversion to such a supply ship over the next nine months. From New York, the Altair went back to the West Coast via the Panama Canal and at San Diego she joined 12 Destroyer Squadron, Battle Fleet, a group of nineteen destroyers.

For the next 17 years, the Altair steamed with her charges, supplying them with all the necessaries of shipboard life, from ammunition to oil, food and repairs. One visit in 1925 included a stay at Hawai'i for maneuvers to assess the defences of the island and its great naval base at Pearl Harbor. Whatever the conclusions of that study, the Japanese struck with almost complete immunity on the morning of December 7, 1941, showing the absolute value of that greatest of military tactics, surprise.

In 1927, the Altair took part in placing an intervention force to protect Americans during a civil war in Nicaragua, ferrying troops from San Diego to Corinto on the west coast of that country.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, the ship was sent for service at Pearl Harbor, a tour of duty carried out several times between refits. In early November 1941, the tender transited the Canal and arrived at Bermuda, for the support of destroyers on patrol in this part of the Atlantic.

The Altair stayed in Bermuda until the following July, when she was sent south to the American base at Trinidad, where operations were maintained for the next year. Subsequently in August 1943, the ship returned to Bermuda to perform tender services to a destroyer and destroyer escort group until March 1945.

Sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and therefore a refit at Newport News, the Altair was on the way to the Pacific, when the dropping of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war in the Far East to a sudden conclusion. In July 1946, the Altair was struck from the Naval Vessel Register and in early 1948 was sold for scrap. So fall most stars of the ocean seas.

On the Bermuda duties of the Altair, Commandant Jules James wrote that "the departure of the ALTAIR for Trinidad on temporary duty is a very great handicap to this station, as they furnish the patrol, a laundry, a detail for Riddell's Bay (Recreation Ground), repairs for small boats, and the many other facilities required on a station during the construction period."

It was during its time at Bermuda, that the crew of the Altair planted a compass rose at "Far Rockaway", in the form of a bronze steering wheel, the spokes of which were inscribed with the cardinal points. In the centre of the wheel is a small brass label that traces the origin of the wheel to the "U.S. ALTAIR". Luckily enough for posterity, this souvenir was never "liberated" by trophy collectors, so with the blessing of the government it has been repositioned in concrete in a prominent position at the entrance to the Commissioner's House at the Maritime Museum. Sixty years have passed since USS Altair departed Bermuda, but perhaps there is still with us a member of its crew who could write and say when and why the enduring bronze memento was embedded into Admiral Jules James' front porch.

Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The views expressed here are his opinion, not necessarily those of the Trustees or Staff of the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm or to P.O. Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone 799-5480.