Battleship New Jersey will move for the first time in more than 20 years January 2, 2024
Battleship New Jersey will move for the first time in more than 20 years
The two-mile voyage will land the ship where it was built in South Philly for repairs.
“It’s going back to Berth 3 because Berth 3 is big enough to hold it,” said Marshall Spevak, the interim chief executive officer of the Homeport Alliance. The nonprofit corporation owns and operates the battleship as a museum and memorial.The bottom of “Big J” — a vessel the length of two football fields and then some — will undergo routine maintenance, repairs, and repainting for the first time in 32 years. Navy maintenance guidelines for inactive ships call for dry-docking every 20 years.
“We’re way overdue and are moving forward now because it will be more expensive every year we wait,” said Spevak, who took a leave of absence as a partner at the Advocacy & Management Group, a Trenton lobbying firm, to take the interim CEO post.
The scope of work
The $10 million project will include inspection of all 1,200 of the zinc nodes that form an electrical circuit protecting the submerged portion of the hull from corrosion. About half likely will need replacement.
During dry dock, “about 165 underwater through-hull openings designed to allow cooling water into the engines,” among other functions, also will be inspected, said Ryan Szimanski, the ship’s curator.
“These openings were covered with sheet-metal plates when the ship was decommissioned in 1991, and one has failed so far,” he said. “We have to check every single one and replace them where necessary.”
The project is expected to take at least two months. The goal is to have the ship towed back to Camden in time for Memorial Day and the peak tourist season.“The ship needs to be inspected, repainted, updated, and brought back home to continue the mission,” said Camden Mayor Vic Carstarphen, who described himself as “a huge supporter” of Big J.
Nearly 80,000 people visited the battleship for tours, overnight stays, and events in 2023. Some of the 70 employees will have to be furloughed during the ship’s absence, Spevak said, but the teak deck replacement project may be able to continue while Big J is in dry dock
» READ MORE: The Battleship New Jersey’s weatherbeaten deck is getting a $4 million facelift
Raising money for hoisting the anchors
Last summer, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that $5 million for the maintenance and repainting project would be provided through the N.J. Historical Commission. Camden County is helping to finance the project with $3.2 million in guaranteed revenue bonds, and the alliance also is raising money to pay for the work.
“I believe the public understands there is a real need for this project,” he said. “These ships won’t just stay afloat forever on their own.”
The big event
Planning for the dry dock has been underway for months, and the ship will continue to be open to the public until about a month before the vessel must be made ready for the trip downriver.
That’s because rising and falling tides aside, “the ship hasn’t moved in 22 years,” he said.“We don’t know what we might encounter. The electricity and utilities will be disconnected. And there’s no getting off the ship.”
A deep affection
Patricia Egan Jones, a former member of the N.J. Assembly and the Camden County Board of Commissioners, was among the core group of South Jersey residents, business people, and public officials who advocated for the battleship to be sited in Camden — despite the state-appointed commission’s implacable effort to steer Big J to Bayonne or elsewhere in North Jersey.
“I want to make sure it stays here.”
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