Intrepid Museum Heads for Drydock Repair
By PAT MILTON
Associated Press Writer
Nov 6, 8:02 AM EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- After 24 years at the same Hudson River pier, the legendary aircraft carrier USS Intrepid is overdue for some R&R - restoration and repair.
The ship's rehabilitation begins Monday, when tugboats are to take advantage of high tide to extract the World War II flattop from its berth for a one-day journey to a New Jersey shipyard. It will return in 2008 to a rebuilt pier, to resume its mission as a military and space museum dedicated to America's war heroes.
The Intrepid's move from Pier 86 has involved meticulous preparation worthy of its first departure for Pacific war combat in 1943. A 6,700-horsepower "tractor tug" has been assigned to pull the 27,000-ton ship into deep river water from the slip where it has rested in up to 17 feet of mud. The move is timed for when the river tide is at its yearly peak.
While officials conceded they couldn't rule out last-minute problems, Intrepid president Bill White expressed confidence that pulling the carrier into open water would go smoothly.
"The people doing this have moved a thousand ships bigger than the Intrepid," White said in an interview. "A ship that survived five kamikaze attacks is going to make it five miles down river."
Hector Giannesca recalled one of those attacks Monday as he stood on the flight deck waiting for the start of ceremonies.
"On March 25, 1944, I was standing on this deck almost in the exact spot as today when a kamikaze crashed into the deck and killed 79 of my shipmates. I was spared," he said.
The British Airways Concorde supersonic jetliner that has been part of the Intrepid museum exhibit since 2004 will be temporarily relocated outside a new recreational center at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. The plane, known as Alpha Delta, still holds transatlantic speed records for commercial aircraft.
The carrier's $60 million refurbishment will include opening up more interior spaces to the public, upgrading its exhibits and a bow-to-stern paint job in naval haze-gray. Pier 86 will also be completely rebuilt in the Intrepid's absence.
New York Harbor's most powerful tugboats have been enlisted to wrestle the mighty carrier from the mud that has embraced its keel for more than two decades.
Removal of 600 tons of water from the Intrepid's ballast tanks gives the ship added buoyancy, and the Army Corps of Engineers recently dredged 15,000 cubic yards of mud to create a channel from dockside to deeper water.
The move was to coincide with the year's highest tide.
Two former mayors, Edward Koch and David Dinkins, will cast off the final mooring lines at the order of 80-year-old retired Rear Adm. J. Lloyd "Doc" Abbot, who served two years as Intrepid's skipper in 1960-62 and has been named honorary commander for the day.
"It was the best job I ever had," Abbot said Monday, standing once again on the ship's deck. "Intrepid had a soul of her own. How can a hunk of iron have a soul, you may ask. But I loved her. She kept me safe and at times I kept her safe."
The craft captured the heart of many who served on its decks.
"I love the Intrepid. I even got a divorce for her," said 81-year-old Felix Novelli, who served on the ship during World War II.
During his second marriage, the Brooklyn native explained, he came to visit the ship each day. When the judge handling the couple's divorce asked Novelli's wife whether there was any love in their marriage, she replied: "Yes, your honor. He loved his ship."
Some 40 other former crew members also will be aboard, lining the deck as the ship makes its stern-first, five-mile trek to Bayonne, past the former World Trade Center site, Ellis island and the Statue of Liberty.
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 York's 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.
By PAT MILTON
Associated Press Writer
Nov 6, 8:02 AM EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- After 24 years at the same Hudson River pier, the legendary aircraft carrier USS Intrepid is overdue for some R&R - restoration and repair.
The ship's rehabilitation begins Monday, when tugboats are to take advantage of high tide to extract the World War II flattop from its berth for a one-day journey to a New Jersey shipyard. It will return in 2008 to a rebuilt pier, to resume its mission as a military and space museum dedicated to America's war heroes.
The Intrepid's move from Pier 86 has involved meticulous preparation worthy of its first departure for Pacific war combat in 1943. A 6,700-horsepower "tractor tug" has been assigned to pull the 27,000-ton ship into deep river water from the slip where it has rested in up to 17 feet of mud. The move is timed for when the river tide is at its yearly peak.
While officials conceded they couldn't rule out last-minute problems, Intrepid president Bill White expressed confidence that pulling the carrier into open water would go smoothly.
"The people doing this have moved a thousand ships bigger than the Intrepid," White said in an interview. "A ship that survived five kamikaze attacks is going to make it five miles down river."
Hector Giannesca recalled one of those attacks Monday as he stood on the flight deck waiting for the start of ceremonies.
"On March 25, 1944, I was standing on this deck almost in the exact spot as today when a kamikaze crashed into the deck and killed 79 of my shipmates. I was spared," he said.
The British Airways Concorde supersonic jetliner that has been part of the Intrepid museum exhibit since 2004 will be temporarily relocated outside a new recreational center at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. The plane, known as Alpha Delta, still holds transatlantic speed records for commercial aircraft.
The carrier's $60 million refurbishment will include opening up more interior spaces to the public, upgrading its exhibits and a bow-to-stern paint job in naval haze-gray. Pier 86 will also be completely rebuilt in the Intrepid's absence.
New York Harbor's most powerful tugboats have been enlisted to wrestle the mighty carrier from the mud that has embraced its keel for more than two decades.
Removal of 600 tons of water from the Intrepid's ballast tanks gives the ship added buoyancy, and the Army Corps of Engineers recently dredged 15,000 cubic yards of mud to create a channel from dockside to deeper water.
The move was to coincide with the year's highest tide.
Two former mayors, Edward Koch and David Dinkins, will cast off the final mooring lines at the order of 80-year-old retired Rear Adm. J. Lloyd "Doc" Abbot, who served two years as Intrepid's skipper in 1960-62 and has been named honorary commander for the day.
"It was the best job I ever had," Abbot said Monday, standing once again on the ship's deck. "Intrepid had a soul of her own. How can a hunk of iron have a soul, you may ask. But I loved her. She kept me safe and at times I kept her safe."
The craft captured the heart of many who served on its decks.
"I love the Intrepid. I even got a divorce for her," said 81-year-old Felix Novelli, who served on the ship during World War II.
During his second marriage, the Brooklyn native explained, he came to visit the ship each day. When the judge handling the couple's divorce asked Novelli's wife whether there was any love in their marriage, she replied: "Yes, your honor. He loved his ship."
Some 40 other former crew members also will be aboard, lining the deck as the ship makes its stern-first, five-mile trek to Bayonne, past the former World Trade Center site, Ellis island and the Statue of Liberty.
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 York's 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.
