Posted on 11/06/2006 8:57:44 AM PST by SmoothTalker
"NEW YORK - The legendary aircraft carrier USS Intrepid got stuck in the deep Hudson River mud Monday as powerful tugboats fought to pull it free to tow the floating museum downriver for a $60 million overhaul."
" After 24 years at the same pier on Manhattans West Side, the Intrepid began inching backward out of its berth, but the tugs moved it only a few feet before its giant propellers jammed in the thick accumulation of mud. The decommissioned war ship no longer has engines of its own."
"The Intrepid, launched in 1943, is one of four Essex-class carriers still afloat six decades after spearheading the naval defeat of Japan in the Pacific. It survived five kamikaze suicide attacks and lost 270 crewmen in battle.
Doomed to the scrap heap, it was purchased in 1981 by real estate developer Zachary Fisher, who realized his dream of turning the ship into the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum a year later.
It became one of New Yorks major tourist attractions, drawing some 700,000 visitors a year. It also supports a Fallen Heroes Fund that has provided $14 million to aid families of service members killed and wounded in the line of duty and built a $35 million advanced training facility for disabled veterans."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
If Damming the river would have would, the ship would have been down river years ago. (Thanks to Shelby Foote)
Drop Rosie O'doughnut in the water to raise its level. Problem solved.
Is that a Concorde off to the side?
Too bad there's that helium shortage going on.
Midshipman Hornblower reccommends rolling out the starboard cannons and firing them to break the suction.
Glad she's being saved as a museum anyway!
why not scrap it? it would be a maintenance hog, has outdated plant, and is a substandard platform for the
current aircraft operated by USN.
Better to spend on current and new ships, planes, and
equipment.
You have the beginning of an idea. How about a bunch of Cat D-9s on shore pushing?
The rudder int the foreground looks like an A-6 Intruder. The one in the background is probably an A-4 Skyhawk.
Bird farms sometimes keep dummy aircraft on deck because they look cool for tours, and gives deck crews something to train on. Of course, they could be hangar queens that are sitting on deck because they have to make the hangar deck water tight to drydock the ship. Pure speculation on my part either way.
Yeah, they bought a Concorde about 2 years ago, have it on a barge.
And the Captain was ????
Bing Bing
Bing Bing
Missouri Departing!
BING
Captain William D. Brown -- Courtmartialed, pleaded guilty, reduced by 250 numbers on the list of captains, spent the rest of his active duty time on shore duty.
Lieutenant Carr, CIC Operations Officer -- Received letter of reprimand.
Lt. Cmdr. Frank Morris, Navigator -- Reduced on promotion list.
Commander George Peckham, XO -- Cleared of all charges. He had tried to warn the captain of the dangers but was ignored.
Quartermaster Bevan Travis, Helmsman -- Cleared of all charges. He had questioned the captain's orders, but then obeyed after Captain Brown had poked his head in and made sarcastic remarks towards him.
Lieut. James Forehan (engineering officer), Ensigns Fredrick Koch and Robert Walters were commended for their quick action in shutting down the valves sending fuel into the boilers. These men had been on deck but quickly went down into the machinery spaces when the grounding occurred. Their timely actions prevented catastrophic damage to the ship's engines when cooling water was lost after the ship's intakes became stuffed with mud.
Actually, I'm suprised she even has screws. Usually, they'll remove the screws and replace them with ballast so they shafts can be turned (to keep the shaft seals from drying out and leaking) without having to worry about putting way on the ship.
It's actually a lot of work to keep a ship floating. :)
Obviously, to lighten her, the skipper had some of his brass removed as well as himself from the ship's command?
"What saddens me is that such an important part of WWII history was destined for the scrap heap."
Actually, the sad story was one of the USS Enterprise. She survived the whole war, only to be sold to the Japanese for scrap. Poor girl.
ping
Wow.
I was aboard the Enterprise when she grounded in San Francisco bay, so I get to say, "Been there, done that!"
Perhaps if Hillary stood right at the tip of the bow, and jumped up and down a few times, the tugs would have sucessfully dislodged the aircraft carrier.
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