Museum ship prepares to return to Manhattan pier

[October 02, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The USS Intrepid is ready to make its way back to Manhattan and resume its post as a floating museum.

Repainted, refurbished and loaded with new exhibits, the aircraft carrier was to arrive Thursday afternoon at the same Hudson River pier where it previously spent 24 years as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

The two-hour, five-mile return voyage from Staten Island was to be the reverse of the one it took 22 months ago, again with a passing salute to the Statue of Liberty and a pause near ground zero.

And again, FDNY fireboats will deliver red, white and blue water sprays, the traditional harbor welcome for arriving ships. The vessel was even to be hauled to its pier by the same four tugboats that brought the old aircraft carrier to its shipyard overhaul.

Its home, Pier 86, was totally rebuilt during Intrepid's absence as part of the project that cost some $120 million, according to Intrepid president Bill White. This also included $20 million to dredge a new channel for Intrepid's 900-foot hull, avoiding any repeat of the 2006 fiasco in which the powerful tractor tugs were initially unable to free it from 17 feet of mud.

White said the seabed next to the pier was recently checked by military divers to make sure there were no underwater obstructions. Moreover, Intrepid's four 15-foot bronze screws -- blamed for the blockage -- were removed.

Launched in 1943 as one of the Navy's then-new Essex-class attack carriers, USS Intrepid figured in six major Pacific War campaigns including Leyte Gulf, perhaps history's greatest naval battle, surviving five Japanese kamikaze suicide planes.

It later saw service in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was twice a recovery ship for NASA astronauts before it was decommissioned and mothballed in a Philadelphia shipyard -- slated for demolition until rescued by New York real estate developer and philanthropist Zachary Fisher.

Since 1982 it has become one of the city's most popular tourist sites, drawing some 750,000 visitors yearly over the past decade.

The renovations at a New Jersey drydock included repair and refurbishment of the ship's 65-year-old hull, followed by interior work at Staten Island's Stapleton naval dock -- opening of formerly sealed spaces and expanded interactive museum exhibits, and the addition of five new aircraft to its flight deck collection.

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On the Net:

Intrepid Museum: http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/

[Associated Press; By RICHARD PYLE]

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