Dry Dock 2024

Battleship New Jersey Dry Docked for the First Time in 32 years

Battleship New Jersey was dry docked for major work on at least three separate occasions in her last decade of service, which is the norm for an active vessel. Her most recent dry docking was from late 1990 into 1991 when she was being deactivated and prepared for the mothball fleet. For an active vessel dry docking every couple of years is necessary, however, for a museum ship 20-year intervals is acceptable and common. It will be over 30 years before the ship is finally dry docked.

On Thursday, March 21, the Battleship departed the Pat Jones/John Matheussen for historic dry dock preventive maintenance for the first time in over 30 years.  The ship was guided by tugboats from McAllister Towing.  The ship was turned around, headed south under the Walt Whitman Bridge to the Paulsboro Marine Terminal. After adding 2,000 tons of water to her for ballast, on Wednesday, March 27, the Battleship New Jersey left the Paulsboro Marine Terminal. She successfully cruised north on the Delaware River to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.  The Battleship was guided by four tug boats from McAllister Towing and took about two hours to traverse the river to the Naval  Shipyard, where she is now berthed in Dock #3, the same dock she was launched from on Dec. 7, 1942.

The Battleship remained in dry dock for 78 days, and returned to her home port on June 20, 2024.

Dry Dock Maintenance 

The dry dock project was vital for the Battleship’s longevity. The museum focused on three main projects during this dry docking period. The main priority for this project was to remove any marine growth and repaint the hull. The hull turned out to be in much better condition than we originally anticipated. This may be due to the ship being berthed in brackish, freshwater compared to salt water.

Once the hull was pressure washed and rid of mud, marine growth, and flash rust, her below-water hull was painted red! This system of immersion-grade coatings was designed to fill in most of the pitting on the hull and form an abrasion-resistant barrier. With each coat a different color, over the next 30 years we’ll be able to tell how much of the paint has worn away!

Next, we inspected the ship's through-hull openings to ensure they are water tight. There are 160 through-hull openings in the ship, which are intentional openings used in active service for cooling the engines or going to the evaporators to create drinking water. When the ship was decommissioned, the Navy welded blanks over these openings. We inspected all the openings and made appropriate welds to ensure their watertightness would last.

We also replaced the anodes on the hull and along the propellor shafts used for cathodic protection. We replaced 1204 inch and one quarter thick zinc anodes with 600 two and one half inch aluminum anodes. Battleship New Jersey is no longer in the saltwater she would have been in active service, so aluminum anodes will better suit her where she’s permanently moored on the Delaware River. 

Dry Dock Tours

Thank you to the over 6,000 guests who visited Battleship New Jersey in dry dock! North Atlantic Ship Repair was kind enough to work with us on dry dock tours that were both safe and fun, and we thank them for allowing our visitors to see this historic ship like never before! On weekends throughout her 78 days in dry dock, we welcomed visitors from around the country and the globe. Due to the success of dry dock tours, we were able to tackle some additional projects while at Dry Dock #3.

One of those projects was caulking the riveted plating of the hull. The Navy did this in the ship's last yard period, and we were able to replicate that work to ensure the ship would have no leaks. Another project was working to make her propellor shafts watertight. This is maintenance not done on active Navy ships, but as a permanently moored ship, it was necessary to encase them and preserve her propellors.

Dry Dock Gallery

Photos Courtesy of Rachel Wisniewski. Click to enlarge.