The training that the tour guides, especially those that work for the City or the State go through extensive training, sometimes I think that they take time capsules back in history so that they know it backwards and forwards.
The City and the Low Country are justifible proud of those men. We have been a shipping center and Navy center "since GOD was a child", (Local saying, I don't mean to offend.)
So much of the Low Country's economic history and local history is wrapped up with the port and the Navy. Generation after generation worked at the Ship Yard and the Weapons Station and various facilities. It was literally like loosing a member of the family when they closed the Shipyard and downsized the other Naval facilities here in Charleston.
We are proud of the men that go down to the sea and sail on the ships..
Our tour guide was amazing! We were teasing him and said that with all of the details and dates that he was throwing out left and right....he could have been making it up, we wouldn't have known the difference. But, actually, he told us that they have to pass a very strick test on the history of the area. He was born on James Island and grew up with the history of Charleston all around him, so it was easy for him. :-)