Battleship NJ Likely To Leave Camden Soon For Maintenance

CAMDEN, NJ — Preparations are underway for the most-decorated battleship in national history to leave the Camden waterfront for the first time in decades.

The Battleship New Jersey will temporarily depart for maintenance work. Several tugboats will bring the USS New Jersey (BB-62) down the river in late February or early March.

"There are two other ships that are ahead of us in the berth," said Marshall Spevak, CEO of the board of trustees for the ship's memorial and museum, "which is why we're also waiting for an exact date of when we're going to move."

Throughout a half-century of deployments, USS New Jersey earned 19 Battle and Campaign stars — the most of any surviving Navy ship. The ship moved to her permanent berth on Sept. 23, 2001, in Camden, becoming one of the state's biggest attractions as a museum.

Last summer, organizers announced that the Battleship New Jersey would get towed down the river for dry-docking — a process of removing a ship from the water to enable work below the waterline.

The work, which includes a paint job and replacing thousands of parts, will take place at the Navy Yard in South Philly. But getting the 887-foot ship there is a massive undertaking.

Crews first need to disconnect utilities at the dock. A crane will take down the ship's mast and radar to ensure she can fit under the Walt Whitman Bridge.

The Battleship New Jersey will not offer tours Monday and Tuesday because of the work. You can watch it live.

Once she's ready to depart, four tug boats will slowly bring the ship to the Navy Yard — a 6-mile journey that will take 10-14 hours.

Towing USS New Jersey is a delicate process in which there's "no telling what might go wrong," a news release said. A limited number of people will board the ship to prevent issues.

Spevak estimates that the work will take 60 days. The endeavor costs about $10 million, and the Battleship New Jersey continues to accept online donations.

Built in 1939 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the Battleship was used in conflicts including World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The ship last entered battle from 1983-84 for U.S. operations in the Lebanese Civil War and decommissioned for a fourth and final time in 1991.

Eight years later, Congress allowed the ship to become a museum.

The ship has been dry-docked at least three times prior — most recently from 1990-91.

Find out more about visiting the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.