Gunner's Blog

By Mark D. Faram
Navy Times
Staff writer
November 8, 2006

Navy salvage experts will join the existing team of military and civilian experts trying to pull the retired aircraft carrier Intrepid from mud in New York Harbor, a Navy official said.The aged World War II veteran had not been moved from its Manhattan berth in 24 years.

A team of salvage experts from the Navy’s Supervisor of Diving and Salvage, in Washington, D.C., has been dispatched to New York to help determine how best to get the ship unstuck, a Navy official confirmed to Navy Times. "The Intrepid Museum has asked for our help," said an official familiar with situation. "We will perform a hydrographic survey of the harbor bottom around the ship to help them determine the best course ahead."

That survey will map the bottom around the ship and tell experts just what must be moved before the ship will come free. Six tug boats with a combined 30,000 horsepower attempted to move the ship from her berth Monday. Though reports say the ship did move 10 feet, it became stuck as the Intrepid’s massive 16-foot diameter screws dug into the harbor bottom and prevented the 27,000-ton ship from getting underway.

The tow was attempted right after a ceremony was conducted to send the ship off on a two-year, $60 million overhaul. According to the Associated Press, the tugs pulled from the stern for 90 minutes while others pushed from the bow, but could not budge the ship. It’s not like the problem wasn’t anticipated, either.

The museum had actually dredged 15,000 cubic yards of mud from the bottom and hoped the ship could be pulled easily from its berth into that 35-foot dredged hole, which would have taken it out into open water. Intrepid, a World War II-era Essex-class aircraft carrier, saw action in the Pacific and survived multiple kamikaze attacks during the war.

The worst attack took place Nov. 25, 1944, when two suicide planes ripped through the ship, destroying the flight deck and killing 64 of its crew. The ship was knocked out of action for three months. Intrepid returned to fight off Okinawa in 1945 before being decommissioned for the first time in 1947.

The ship was again decommissioned in 1952 for modernization and then recommissioned in 1954. It survived as an active ship until being decommissioned for the final time in 1974. New York builder Zach Fisher acquired the ship in the 1970s and transformed it into a museum honoring all who served in the armed forces. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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