Baytown or Beaumont would be terrible locations to move her. San Jacinto has been one of those slightly out of the way places down in the refinery country. I have not been there in quite some time but it did always seem out of the way. To say it has nothing to do with the San Jacinto Monument does not seem right to me. Both are symbols of Texas’ defiance. Going to Galveston may be OK but I don’t see any connection there either for that matter.
Is this going to be another patch job that does not last as they did the last time they went to so much effort to save her? Raising her out of the water seems the only real way to save her for very long.
Yeah, a couple of things there. The first thing I would tell your listeners is the state of Texas owns a battleship Texas. They always will. They should. It’s the right place for it to be. But they made the decision when we pulled it out of San Jacinto State Park. They’re looking for a more favorable location where it’s more visible, it gets more visitors. And I love the park – I’ve been coming in and out of here, you know, most of my life; it’s beautiful. But the ship’s history doesn’t have anything to do with San Jacinto. We’re going to take our history with us. It was made thousands of miles from here, and it’ll go wherever the ship goes.
Where will it end up? Still in negotiations ... $$$.
We’ve been in long-term conversations with Beaumont, Baytown and Galveston about the new home. Those negotiations continue. And so it’s really the final piece of the puzzle. You know, you do the funding. You do the “how do we move it? Where are we going to get a dock?”
And it looks like it will be in a dry dock for repairs.
Even the dock is a story. It was in the Bahamas, had to be repaired. It spent eight days being towed to Galveston. But they’re doing final prep. We’re doing final prep. And we’re going to meet up tomorrow afternoon.