【GDC特集⑤】～フィッシャーマンズワーフで観光～篇

*English translation below

エンジニアの齊藤です。

帰りの飛行機の関係で土曜日がまるっと空いたので、観光に行ってきました。
ゲーム開発者は「属性：引きこもり」なので、こんなことでもなければ観光になんて行かないのです・・・

向かった先はフィッシャーマンズワーフ。
色々うろつき周り、流れ着いたのがこちら。

船名は Jeremiah O’brien。
リバティ船という第二次大戦時の商船で、これは現存する２隻のうちの１隻だとか。
リバティ船Wikipediaリンク
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%90%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E8%88%B9

$20払っていざ見学へ。
この時はまだ、「まあ、なにかの話の種になればいいか」くらいなテンションでした。

甲板の様子。
外から見るとかなり大きいイメージでしたが、実際に乗ってみると割と手狭な印象。
見学者用にベンチとか用意されてます。
船の形に添って傾斜がついているのが何故か印象的でした。
前方右手の高いところは砲座です。

という訳で、砲座に上がってみました。
後で調べたところによるとこれは 3inch砲、なかなかシャープな見た目です。

さてこの砲塔、弾は出ませんが(当たり前)、操作が可能な状態でした。
写真中央辺りに見えるハンドルを回すと砲が動きます。
砲塔の左側で方位角、(フレームから外れてますが)右側で仰角。
早くもテンションマックスになった我々は、みんなしてハンドルをぐるんぐるん回します。

その時の我々の会話を一部抜粋。
「あの旗、撃てないかな？」
「いや、撃つなよ」
「えー、でも邪魔じゃない？」
「……まあ、確かに」

さすがに戦闘中は旗を降ろしてたと思うのですが、ポールもなかなか邪魔な感じです。
旗自体あとから追加されたものだったりするのかもしれません。

ちなみにこちらが砲弾。
・・・うーむ、どう考えてもサイズが合いません(汗)
後部に 5inch砲があったので、もしかするとそちらの弾かも。
しかし小口径の砲でもこの迫力、戦艦クラスの砲弾となるとどの程度のものなのか・・・

こちらは 20mm対空機銃。
先程の砲は操作に３人必要でしたが、これは一人で操作できそうです。
こちらは入り口が塞がれていたので泣く泣くスルー。

船の上から１枚。
割と高さがあります。
船荷を載せてないことで喫水線が下がっている分もあると思いますが。

よく見ないと分かりませんが、ベンチに座っているのは一人待機組のTさん。
「ちょっと見てくる」くらいのノリで出かけていった我々が、帰ってくるまでにあれだけ時間がかかろうとは多分思っていなかったでしょう。
ごめんなさい。

船の先頭から。
前方に見えるのは、同じく大戦当時の潜水艦パンパニト。
パンパニトはアジ科コバンアジの一種だそうです。
アメリカの潜水艦は魚類から名前が付けられています(第二次大戦当時)。

今思えば、向こうも見学しておけばよかったですね。
潜水艦と水上艦、どちらを見学するか選択したわけですが、両方見学するという選択肢に気づきませんでした。
ちなみにあちらも動かせる状態で残されているとのことで、アメリカの物持ちの良さは侮りがたいものがあります。

なんとなく見学ルートっぽい流れで、反時計回りに甲板を回った我々が見つけたのは船室への入り口。
階段があれば登り入口があれば入る、スイープモードに突入していた我々は迷うことなく突入します。

船室です。
偉い人用かもしれませんが、割と余裕がある作り。
当たり前ですが飛行機の席とは全然違いますね。
飛行機は移動することが目的で、船室は生活することが目的と、そもそも立て付けが違うわけですが。

写真撮り忘れましたが、通路のあちこちに斧が配置されていました。
近接戦闘用・・・ではなく、扉が開かなくなったりなど、何かあったときの破壊工作用でしょう。

通信室。
奥にあるのが通信機だと思うのですが、立入禁止だったので細かいところまでは分からず。

操舵室。
外を視認できない構造だったのが意外でした。
まあ外が見える状態だと、狙われ放題なので当たり前ではあるのですが。

舵輪の後ろ側。
信号旗がいっぱいありました。
流石に当時(70年前)のものではないと思うのですが、物持ちの良さを考えると可能性を捨てきれません。

キッチン。
かなり広いですね。
見学者向けの撮影素材用なのか、料理が配されています。
食品サンプルでは無かったので、あとでスタッフが美味しくいただいたと信じたい。

船室から出た隣にはエンジンルームの入り口がありました。
狭い上にえらい複雑な構造で、移動するだけでも一苦労。
砲座に上る階段もそうでしたが、客船では無い以上、すべてエキスパート向けに作られているのでしょう。

謎の機械群。
かなりきれいに手入れされていました。
きちんと動かせる状態で保存されているとのことで、色々納得です。
これを実際に動かす場合、何人くらい必要なんでしょうね？

エンジンルームから出て、向かった最後尾にあったのが後部砲座。
こちらは 5inch砲。駆逐艦の主砲並みということもあり、かなりごつい印象。
流石にこのサイズだと、人力で動かすようにはなっていないようです。
砲座が立入禁止だったので、詳しい部分は見られませんでした・・・残念。

右手に見えるのは、かの有名なアルカトラズ島。
観光地になっているらしく、時折フェリーが渡っているのが見られました。
空は晴れていますが、当日は波がめちゃくちゃ高かったので、乗ってたら間違いなく船酔いしてたでしょう。

そんなこんなで、見学できるところは隅から隅まで回って大体一時間くらい。
これだけでも観光に来て良かったと思うくらい堪能させていただきました。
・・・ずっと待ってたTさんには悪いことしましたね(汗)

その後ギラデリスクエアでお土産を買った我々は、満足を胸に空港へと向かったのでした。

（斎藤）

【GDC Report ⑤】 ~Sightseeing at Fisherman’s Wharf~ Compilation

Hi, I’m Saito and I work here as an engineer.

The timing of our flight back home left our Saturday completely free, so we decided to take the day to do some sightseeing.
When it comes to game developers you could say that one of our natural attributes is being a “hikikomori,” which is basically someone who shuts away in their room and keeps away from social situations. So if it wasn’t for this trip, we probably wouldn’t have gone out to sightsee like this.

We decided to set our sights on Fisherman’s Wharf for our destination.
So after wandering around aimlessly for a while, this is where we ended up.

This ship is the “Jeremiah O’Brien.”
It’s a “Liberty” ship, which is a type of cargo ship that was used during World War II. This ship in particular is one of two ships that currently exist right now.
Here is a Wikipedia link for Liberty ships:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship

I went ahead and took the tour for $20.
I was still a bit nervous at that moment when I started thinking about what type of stuff we should talk about and such.

This is what the deck looks like.
From the outside it seems massive, but once you actually get on it’s much more cramped than it looks. They also have benches and stuff like that for visitors to use.
The ship has a slanted shape to it which really left an impression on me.
One of the ship’s gun platforms was toward the front high up on the right side.

From there, I got up and had a look at the platform the gun was sitting on.
Afterwards I looked it up online; it’s a 3 inch gun barrel, which has a really sharp look to it.

Also, the gun itself wasn’t loaded (obviously), but it was fully operational.
If you look around the center of the photo you can see a handle that rotates to move the gun’s direction.
The handle on the left-hand side is for rotating the cannon horizontally, while the handle on the right-hand side (not shown in the photo) is for vertical elevation.
By this point we were already at the height of our excitement, so everyone was eager to go ahead and rotate the gun’s handle.

Here’s a bit of the conversation that we had:
“I wonder if we can hit that flag?”
“No way, don’t shoot it!”
“But don’t you think it’s getting in our way?”
“Well, if you put it that way…”

I imagine that the flag wouldn’t have been up during battles, and I feel like that pole is totally in the way too.
I’m sure the flag and stuff like that were added at some point later on in the ship’s history.

By the way, here is a shot of one the gun’s artillery shells.
Hmm, even if you think about it that size just doesn’t seem like it would fit… (Yikes!).
There was a 5 inch gun toward the rear, so maybe this artillery shell goes with that one.
But even for a small caliber gun barrel like this, I wonder just how intense battleship artillery shells are…

This photo shows the 20mm anti-aircraft machine gun.
It took three people to operate this machine gun, but it seems like one person would be able to use it.
But much to my disappointment, the entrance was blocked off and there was no way to get through to it.

This shot is from the top of the ship.
The height here was much higher than the other sections.
I think that some parts of the ship’s water-line hangs down since there isn’t any cargo.

It’s a little hard to see, but T-san is sitting there alone waiting for us on that bench.
We left to get on the ship saying something like, “We just want a quick look!” But, I didn’t think that we would stay there all the way up until we had to leave.
Sorry about that!

Here is the view from the front end of the ship.
If you look ahead you can see the submarine “Pampanito,” just like it would have been during the war.
Apparently the Pampanito submarine is named after a type of fish called “pompano.”
American submarines are named after different types of fish (during World War II).

Thinking about it now, I wish we had taken a tour there too.
The choice came down to seeing a submarine or a surface level ship, but it didn’t occur to me that touring both was also an option.
Speaking of which, the submarine they have sitting over there is in working order too. The level of upkeep they have for these things here in America is truly amazing.

We followed along what seemed to be a route of sorts and after turning counterclockwise from the deck we discovered the entrance to the ship’s cabin area.
We kept along the stairs while we passed through without the least bit of hesitation.

Here is the ship’s cabin.
It must have been used by high ranking officials on the ship since it was relatively spacious.
As you would expect the seats are completely different than what you see on airplanes.
Airplanes are meant to get from one place to another, while a cabin like this is meant to be for living.
Also, I assume that the door here is fitted differently now than it was before.

I forgot to get a picture, but the passageways had axes placed all throughout them.
For close quarters combat…? No, I think they must be for whenever doors got jammed in or maybe for some type of sabotage if something happened.

The communications room.
That must be their communications equipment over there in the center, or at least I think. Entry was prohibited so I couldn’t look it over and figure it out.

The pilothouse, or wheelhouse.
I was surprised by how the room was built without any views of the outside.
If you could see outside then you could aim at whatever you like, which seems obvious to me.

This side is behind the steering wheel.
There were a ton of signal flags there.
I don’t think that those are the same flags that were there back then (70 years ago), but I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility either after seeing how much they keep everything in top shape here.

The kitchen.
It’s incredibly spacious, isn’t it?
There was some food that I think might have been there for visitors who wanted to get pictures.
It wasn’t a plastic food replica or anything like that, so I’d like to believe that the staff digs right into the food afterwards.

After exiting the cabin area the entrance to the engine room was right next door.
It’s built in a way that’s so cramped and complicated that just moving through it is a pain.
It’s not a passenger ship, so it’s designed exclusively for experts to use. The same is true for the staircase above the artillery platform.

Here is some strange looking machinery.
Each part had been completely maintained in pristine shape.
I could see that everything was preserved in complete working order.
I wonder how many people it took to operate machinery here when it was actually used.

After exiting from the engine room we came out toward the tail end where the rear artillery platform was located.
This is a 5 inch artillery cannon. Apparently that’s average for a destroyer’s main armaments, and it looks nothing less than incredible.
Certainly something this size can’t be moved by hand.
The artillery platform was off limits, so unfortunately I couldn’t get a good look at everything… oh well!

If you look to the right you can see the famous Alcatraz Island.
I figured it was a tourist destination of some sort, and there looked to be ferries going back and forth every once in a while.
The sky was clear that day, but the waves were rising up aggressively. I definitely would have gotten seasick if I had ever actually sailed on this ship.

So with that, we got to see just about every nook and cranny of the ship, which took about an hour altogether.Well it was only a little bit of sightseeing, but I still totally enjoyed it nonetheless.
However, I do feel bad for making T-san wait for so long… *cold sweat*

After that we all went to shop for souvenirs at Ghirardelli Square and then left for the airport with full satisfaction.

（Saito）