She was built for WWII, reconditioned and fought in WWII in the Atlantic, took part in supporting D-Day in Normandy, then steamed to the Pacific and fired cover for the Marines at Iwo Jima. Quite a storied ship.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I highly recommend the USS Texas "Hard Hat Tour"
The hull of the Texas is in terrible shape, I've read. The ship needs to be repaired badly, but they are afraid if they move it into the Houston Ship Channel it will sink and block passage for other ships. It's one of the two or three ex-US Navy ships most in need of repair, another one being the USS Olympia, which was a ship from the Spanish-American War and the Great White Fleet.
I took the Hard Hat tour in 2003 and 2007. In 2003 we were allowed to go all the way to the stern to see the steering gear. They had 2- 2x6's on the deck to walk on, They told us to walk on them. They said if we stepped on the (rusty) deck, we would fall through a few levels and they would not know how to get us out. By 2007 the stern hull had deteriorated so much it was unsafe to go all the way back. They didn't want you to touch the interior of the bulkhead because it had rusted to 1/4" thick and you could puncture it and flood the ship.
When they moved to USS Texas to its current berth it almost did sink during the transit.
Post a Comment