The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996                TAG: 9607030033
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A16  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                            LENGTH:   29 lines

WHY KNOCK NAUTICUS?

I work as a docent at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum every Thursday afternoon. I have had the opportunity to talk to many visitors from all over our country and from many other countries. They all have high praise for our museum and for the challenges and the entertainment that they have enjoyed at Nauticus.

This afternoon we received a telephone call at Hampton Roads Naval Museum that was really meant for Nauticus. The caller - a man - gave notice that he was fed up paying taxes to support Nauticus so he had placed a bomb in the building. The caller did not know enough about Nauticus to dial the right number, but HRNM's number was only the first of his errors.

He should have known that, as a taxpaying citizen of Norfolk, he is not now paying taxes to support Nauticus, but that he would have had to assume that burden if, by putting Nauticus out of business, he had made Norfolk responsible for paying off its bonds.

This man never could have found this out by reading your newspaper, could he? You write about Nauticus only when you feel that you have something discouraging to report. No matter the question, you seem to denigrate whatever position Norfolk has taken, making the city's interests secondary to some other purpose. Perhaps you should just state what your purpose is.

CHARLES J. DEVINE JR., M.D.

Norfolk, June 27, 1996 by CNB