Navy transfers battleship to Norfolk

[unhappycamper]

Navy transfers battleship to Norfolk
Staff report
Posted : Monday Dec 14, 2009 16:45:06 EST

Navy officials signed the paperwork Monday to donate the service’s last battleship, the Wisconsin, to the city of Norfolk, Va., the Navy announced. The transfer is the next step in opening up many of the ship’s interior spaces for public tours.

Before the official transfer, Nauticus and the affiliated Hampton Roads Naval Museum had to maintain the Wisconsin in a low level of readiness in case the Navy needed to reactivate the battleship for service. During that time, only the topside and a few decks in the superstructure were available for public tours. Now that the ship has been transferred, Nauticus will eventually be able to open more of the ship to the public, said Monica McCoy, a spokeswoman for Naval Sea Systems Command.

Navy and Norfolk city officials had hoped the transfer would have taken place earlier this year, but worries about hazardous materials aboard prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to slow the process until its standards were met.

The Wisconsin will remain berthed on the waterfront at the Nauticus museum in downtown Norfolk, where it has been tied up in a reserve status since 2000. Decommissioned in 1991, the ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry in 2006, and so technically is the “ex-Wisconsin.” From 2000 to 2009, the Navy paid Norfolk about $2.8 million to dock the Wisconsin on the waterfront.

The Wisconsin is the 46th museum ship donated by the Navy for display in 22 states, according to an announcement from Naval Sea Systems Command. Three of the four Iowa-class battleships are on display. In addition to the Wisconsin, the other two are the New Jersey, in Camden, N.J.; and the Missouri, which is undergoing repairs in a drydock in Pearl Harbor.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/12/navy_wisconsin_transfer_121409w/

[Dennis Donovan]

1. The Iowa still lingers in Suisun Bay...

http://www.radioiowa.com/2009/12/11/group-seeks-support-funds-to-save-the-u-s-s-iowa/


Group seeks, support, funds to save the U.S.S. Iowa

by Dar Danielson on December 11, 2009

in Human Interest, Military

Representatives of the California group seeking to save the U.S.S. Iowa battleship were recently at the state capitol building in Des Moines to try and gain attention and more funding for the effort. Marilyn Wong is a spokesperson for the Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square on Mare Island where the Iowa is docked.

She says it’s right outside of San Francisco and is within 10 miles of the internally acclaimed Napa-Sanoma wine country. Wong says the volunteer group has already raised four million dollars which went toward the initial steps in securing the ship. Wong says it has mostly been a California effort and they were successful in moving the ship from Rhode Island to its California.

She says the move will assure the ship’s financial future as a museum and a memorial. Wong says the money also included the work for the formal application to the nave to acquire the ship. The group needs to raise a total of 18-million dollars and needs to show it has raised a significant amount of that money to get the government to sign off on the project. Wong says they would like to get the state to chip in money too, but she admits the economy makes it tough.

[Sherman A1]

2. Tried to visit Nauticus & the Wisconsin last year

when on vacation, but it was closed on Monday and that was the only day I had in the area. So had to miss it. Really would have like to have seen both, but didn't work out......Oh, well.