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Battleship New Jersey Leaves Her Pier For First Time In Over 30 Years

Battleship New Jersey Leaves Her Pier For First Time In Over 30 Years​

The move from the Camden waterfront to the Philadelphia Navy Yard is essential to begin critical renovations on the historic vessel.
BYOLIVER PARKEN|PUBLISHED MAR 21, 2024 7:37 PM EDT
USS-New-Jersey-passing-under-the-Walt-Whitman-Bridge.jpg

The decommissioned Iowa class battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62), the most decorated battleship in U.S. naval history and the second-built of four of her kind, left its dock for the first time in over 30 years earlier today for an extensive maintenance overhaul.
Imagery and videos of the historic warship — which has been permanently berthed as a museum ship at a ceremonial pier on the Camden waterfront in New Jersey since 2001 — have proliferated online this afternoon. These show it on its short journey down the Delaware River to the former Philadelphia Navy Yard, where essential maintenance work on the ship will take place.

A short departure ceremony was held for New Jersey on the Camden waterfront at 11.00 A.M. ET, attended by U.S. Navy personnel, veterans, and members of the public, as well as Phil Murphy (D), Governor of New Jersey, and Congressman Donald Norcross (D), South Jersey.
"There's no battleship in our history that comes close to the legacy [of New Jersey]," Murphy said at the ceremony.





From there, pulled by tugboats, it headed south under the Walt Whitman Bridge, seen in this article's feature image, before docking at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal in the afternoon. There, according to WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, it will be balanced for dry docking, before heading to the Naval Yard's dry dock number three in six days time.


That the dock maintenance will occur at this particular dry dock represents something of a homecoming for New Jersey; as it was there that the battleship was built during the late-1930s to early-1940s and launched on December 7, 1942, the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor. When the contract was awarded for the battleship in July 1939, Charles Edison, acting secretary of the Navy, chose to name the Philadelphia-built ship after his home state of New Jersey.


Overall, the maintenance is "vital for the Battleship’s longevity," New Jersey's museum website notes. The work is expected to take around two months in all to complete, which includes repainting the hull of the ship, mending its anti-corrosion system, and various inspections.

According to the battleship's curator, Ryan Szimanski, moving New Jersey might well be a "once in a generation occurrence" due to its age, WPVI-TV reported. Szimanski further told the outlet that the battleship represents "one of the most impressive man-made objects ever," displacing some 57,500 tons.
<em>Iowa</em> class USS New Jersey firing its nine 16-inch guns simultaneously during a demonstration in 1984. <em>USN</em>

Iowa class USS New Jersey firing its nine 16-inch guns simultaneously during a demonstration in 1984. USN
 
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