This made me think of that scene from It's Always Sunny where Charlie has a conspiracy theory room with red string everywhere, but it's Ryan and all the newspaper clippings are about battleships
I have watched several of your videos and I just want to say that I appreciate your coverage of ships outside of the New Jersey. it is very nice for you to bring attention to museum ships as a whole. You are single handed educating every generation on something that is very important instead of just focusing on your ship alone. You have a great team, thank you for working so hard to do all of these.
I think for a mighty warship like the New Jersey, there's something more dignified about being in the water than being in the ground. But in the end, economics will rule over dignity.
Wait until you see the hull of the Texas. These are dead ships to never be run under their own power again. Small enough to get on land, it's the only way. BB's, endless cycle drydocking and tons of money.
@@finscreenname ships belong in water. No one said it’s cheap to maintain them. I would MUCH rather visit a museum ship that is in water than on ground.
There is also the idea of preserving some ( smaller ) ships *in* a museum. The U-505 sits inside a specifically built building at The Museum Of Science and Industry in Chicago, Ill. Though she has entry and exits cut into her sides for interior tours ( an idea from the old era of displaying ships to the public ), the U-505 is being well preserved for the future. A visit worth taking for those interested. Thanks to Ryan and Battleship New Jersey for a good and thoughtful video! ☺
in summer 2020 I visited Seawolf Park, and over the course of two weeks, helped to troubleshoot power problems with the USS Cavalla's radio, and was able to get the 3 inch guns on the Stewart to both elevate and traverse through their entire firing arcs. your last comment made me think that they are not seized up again? the issue with them was that they were never greased. we got a grease gun and hit every zerk fitting we could find, as well as removed the extremely corroded mild steel bolts that limited their elevation. this, in combination with working the guns around manually, we were able to get all three 3 inch guns to rotate and elevate. a cool thing was that we found no evidence of 'spiking' or welding the breeches of the guns, and we did some practice drills with some dummy rounds for fun. of course the breeches didn't budge, they were rusted stuck. I'm fairly well acquainted with Ryan, the young man who's the main maintenance fellow and caretaker (in his words) who's working there. not sure if he still works there, but he was about 5 months ago, last I spoke with him. tell him the Irish tanker says hello.
Someone has done this for parts of littorio and Yamato. In games like warthunder you can use vr in the replay system to navigate the decks at least of some smaller ships
This would definitely be wonderful for those who are interested in museum ships but can't make it out for one reason or another whether it be financial or others that would prevent travel (the last two years, for example for some).
No kidding... True immortality lies in the faithful digitizing of the experience. Not just visually... but really get in there. We've all seen the google earth imagery, and it's great... but within a few years we could be seriously looking at a completely pixel for millimeter virtual reality experience that's no different from walking the halls of the ship. Peeking under work benches. Lying in bunks. It would be time consuming... but in one shot you allow access to the museum itself to millions who cannot visit - and access to spaces not available with tours in person. Preserved for as long as people care to keep the files... likely hundreds or thousands of years.
I was in the Sub service in New London when the SSBN I was on was in off crew for my crew (Gold). The USS Nautilus came into the base and I went down and asked if I could come aboard and tour the boat. I was given permission to come aboard and got full tour since I was an SSBN crew member (Qualified). This was a year before she was sent for decommissioning. It was interesting seeing where nuke powered subs started at. Oh while I was in I also got to meet Admiral Rickover I cannot say where or how but needless to say it was interesting especially for a TMSN at the time. lol
I think that whatever mooring method each museum ship uses is probably the best for them. There is no one right method, and each ship chooses their method with good reason.
Thank you for the coverage of the Stewart's past and current berthing. Here in Little Rock, Arkansas, we have the Razorback submarine and the Hoga tug, both very securely moored along the bank of the Arkansas River.
Bro, his battleship is across the river from Philadelphia, I guarantee Ryan has had negative experiences with Philly sports fans. Philly fans are notorious for being the absolute worst (they riot and fuck up their own city _even when they win_ ) so it's not a stretch to assume that drunk Eagles or Flyers or Phillies or 76ers fans have tried to steal the battleship 😆
@@cleverusername9369 Philadelphia is the main reason I haven’t gone to see the USS New Jersey, Independence Hall, liberty bell etc. I had planned on going but the lockdown hit. I want to see them before some jerk decides to burn them but for obvious reasons I put that trip off indefinitely. I did go to see the North Carolina. On my next vacation I’ll probably see the USS Wisconsin, VA Beach, the aquarium and Williamsburg instead.
HMS Caroline, the last surviving ship to have fought at Jutland, and a museum ship today, was recently (past couple of years) secured in place with a large hinged boom system, that is a lot more solid than mooring lines and keeps her rigidly in place, while still allowing her to ride up and down with the tide. Previously she was known to have broken free from her moorings at least once during a severe storm.
I never thought of that but I was perfectly sober when I considered scaling the ropes just to check out Orleck when it arrived in Jacksonville and hadn't yet opened as a museum ship.
Thanks for mentioning the Batfish! A lot of people don't even know there is a submarine on display in Oklahoma. I have read they have plans in place now to relocate her a few miles down river rather than move her back to her original spot. Would be cool to see a video if it were possible for you to do one sometime. Keep up the good work!
Would be cool if they opened Batfish at some point. Similarly, the Marlin in Omaha. Only open on the weekend year round. How do some of these museum ships stay solvent without walk in revenue? Must have very good benefactors??
Hi Ryan, Wow what a crazy interconnected world this is. Mt Dad served on the USS South Dakota BB57 as a Fleet Marine. He met my Mother before leaving Philadelphia Navy Yard. The South Dakota was built at NY Ship, which was in Camden NJ. I grew up in Medford NJ. Last time I was back in Philly we were on the deck of the Olympia looking across the Delaware at the USS New Jersey and thinking next visit, we go aboard. I was just watching your video about Fleet flagships and that one lead me here, and there you are standing on Pelican Island at Seawolf Park????? What the heck, we were just there last weekend! We now live in Galveston. Best to you! Love your videos.
USS Cobia in Manitowoc WI is floating, moored using cables and rope. It does sit pretty high in the water (not loaded enough) but it is well protected just up river from Lake Michigan.
Up here in Yukon Canada, we have two preserved sternwheelers, SS Klondike in Whitehorse, and SS Keno in Dawson City. Both are parked beside the rivers they plied. Parks Canada has done a fantastic job preserving both ships, even with the extreme weather both face - tempuratures below -40 and severe snow loads in winter, and scorching long hot days in summer. In at least one event, the Keno suffered damage when the Yukon River broke its banks and flooded the entire downtown Dawson City area. While these are both wooden ships, both are nearly a century old and have endured substantial wear and tear of their own. There's also a third sternwheeler, the SS Nenana in Fairbanks Alaska that Ive not been at yet. All three are worth the visit on their own right, but maybe worth seeing how they've handled their work given their more extreme climates.
I hate to bust a bubble, but the Stewart being imbedded in dirt like that, will have its hull eaten up by rust below ground especially in a region with high annual rainfall unless the hull had been heavily coated with something that prevents water in the soil from coming in contact with the hull. Paint will work in the short term but the water eventually will get through.
The 1st museum ship I ever boarded. The ship that cemented my love for museum ships. The history on this ship. I love the USS Stewart. Oh and the rest of Seawolf Park!
There is probably an online listing of all the ship museums that you can use to plan your next adventure. I highly recommend the Alabama in Mobile, the North Carolina in Wilmington and of course the New Jersey up North in Camden, New Jersey. My ship from 1984 through 1987 was the carrier Lexington, now on display in Corpus Christi, Texas. I haven't visited her since the day I flew off in 1987, so that is the one I most want to visit next.
Biggest storm I have experienced is Hurricane Hugo (Cat4) onboard USS Eisenhower at sea. Hugo chased us up the Eastern Seaboard all the way to Nova Scotia. We were taking waves over the bow. The Catapults needed deep cleaning from the Seawater infiltration.
That old sub floating like a cork in a bath tub next to those flooded farm houses was hilarious. Reminds me of being a kid and playing in the bathtub with my toy submarine and ships.
I wonder more about the grounded ships like these sinking into the ground itself...i know it sounds wierd but when you get alot of rain or flooding, the ground can soften and thus stationary weight tend to sink into the ground, itself. We have that issue here in mississppi with the houses, which is also why there are no basements or root cellers (or very few).
I live in North Little Rock, Arkansas and we have a small Maritime Park. We have the USS Hoga which was a tugboat @ Pearl Harbor Dec. 7th. We also have a World War 2 Submarine. I think it's the USS Razorback. Not sure. 394 is painted on the conning tower. A lot of volunteers helped refurbish it. I might be wrong but I think they even got the engines to run.
One thing to consider is whether a museum ship is moored in fresh or salt water. The ships in fresh water locations are going to have fewer/slower corrosion problems but that is not to say none. The USS Cod which is afloat in Cleveland was dry docked last summer (2021) to repair hull damage. Hull damage for a museum ship from ground water when the hull is buried could be mitigated by lining the excavation with impermeable material like a membrane or clay or both. If it works for buried gasoline tanks it would work for a shop's hull.
I live in Houston but grew up in Texas City, TX. I've been through every hurricane that has struck the Houston-Galveston area since Hurricane Carla back in the sixties. As we say here: "Run from the water, hide from the wind".
The only storms I get where I am are heavy rainstorms. As for preservation methods, I think it should be situational/depending on the location and the kind of ship.
Closest USN museum ship to me would be the USS Turner Joy up in Bremerton, WA. Last I saw, she was moored as would considered normal and appropriate for a destroyer of her size. They have done a wonderful job on the restoration. One of the volunteers mentioned that if the agreement with the USN allowed it to be made operable, it most likely was. He specifically mentioned that if they lost shore power, the EDG could auto-start and pick up the load just as it always had if they chose to line it up to do so.
We were stuck in/on the sand quite often back in 66/67 "way down yonder in Viet Nam". Sometimes they had to bulldoze sand around our bow, but we always managed to get our WW2 LST (Landing Ship, Tank) free and underway again, once we even pulled a PBR off a sandbar down in the delta.
Ryan, always great content. Here's an FYI for you and your viewers. The USS Orlek has the green light to be towed from Port Arthur TX to Jacksonville FL sometime during February/March. To start a new life on the Jacksonville waterfront as a floating museum. Hope you can be there when she arrives.
I wish the USS North Carolina had a channel like this! Thank you for all the information you give. I love Battleships and wish there was still a viable way for the Navy to continue to use them.
Cool to see the Disney cruise ship too. I know that I’ve been on it as well. The Disney wonder is the only one of the fleet that comes into and departs from Galveston.
I recently saw a video of the SS Great Britan and thought it was an amazing way to preeerve a ship on land while still looking like the ship was at see. What do you think of how the dhip is perservesd and do you think something like it could be used in a ship the size of New Jersey ?
Here in Southern California we have four museum ships. All are afloat although at least one probably could end up being land locked. In San Diego is USS Midway. Los Angeles has SS Lane Victory and USS Iowa. In Long Beach is RMS Queen Mary which is not Navy but did serve in WW II as a troop ship. It is the one ship in deepest distress. It is also the oldest of the four. I don't know if Long Beach is considering "land bounding" the ship, but that certainly seems to be a reasonable option as it needs extensive repairs.
Talking about museum ship berthering, you definitely could mention the Mikasa in Japan where in the 20s they just incased her in concrete and left her on the bayside
She was incased, not filled, in concrete. This was done because of the Washington arms treaty so that she could never sail again. If they had not done this, she would have had to have been scrapped to meet treaty requirements. She went through WW2 that way and after the war I understand occupying troops welded her gun breaches, just in case.
Hi Ryan Thank you for the great videos i have been watching them for a long time. If you ever come to Denmark I will be glad to take you on a tour of our museum ships. We have ships that have been salvaged from the viking age through the 17th century and cold war era diesel submarienes (on wich my farther served)
Big storms near me? I'm in Tornado Alley so there's that. A local Air Museum several years ago did take a very near miss that spared the building but did ruin some out door static displays. A Cessna 0-2 and a Prescott Pusher come to mind, luckily some bigger stuff like B-52 and B-47 came through mostly unscathed.
USS Batfish is the nearest museum ship to me (in Oklahoma), and the fact that she WAS dry berthed but the plans are now to have her floating dockside in the Arkansas River does have me concerned for her long-term viability. If the organization that owns her was unable to maintain her in a dry berth, I'm concerned that having her afloat is only going to increase maintenance issues down the road. No one wants to see what happened with USS Ling happen with Batfish--or any museum ship, for that matter. It's a sort of commentary on US Navy museum ships that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry was able to do for U-505 what no one has yet done for any American museum ship . . . a permanent indoor dry berth. It's entirely feasible at this point that a German Type IXC U-boat may outlast all of the US Navy warships of WWII.
Her dry berth was a poor man's dry dock which was improvised after they discovered that she was too long to make it through a bend in the river further upstream to her intended home at the Port of Catoosa, that and she wasn't sufficiently moored as no one ever expected the river to flood high enough to float her over the top of the berm enclosing her berth. This has also had the unintended consequence of her being in an area where she doesn't have the tourist volume required to generate the revenue necessary to keep her in really good condition.
There are some entirely preserved midget subs and pt boats that have been in airconnend warehouses or museums for a long while, sad it cant happen for all ships but they're just small enough to preserve so easily.
I suspect that burying the hull like this has long term corrosion issues just as a ship in its design element (water) does. A lot easier to examine and dry dock a ship that’s floating like Battleship New Jersey. Over in the UK there are at least three museum ships stored in another way, essentially permanent dry dock. I suspect that flooding is not a major issue for the locations. One is the HMS Victory in Portsmouth Dockyard. Another is the clipper ship Cutty Sark in Greenwich. She’s in Greenwich UK in a specially built dry dock. There’s now some sort of glassed over covering of the dry dock making it an exhibit space and allowing visitors to see the hull. I saw her in summer of 1969 as a NY Maritime Cadet on a training cruise (long before that cover, and the disastrous fire). The third is the steamship Great Britain. She’s in Bristol. LoL! Only reason I know about her covered dry dock is a UA-cam video from History Hits that watched just before this one 😇
There has been a lot of talk about putting the Texas in a Dry Berth or a Dry Dock. Now, the Lexington will need work, but they used cement for ballast and it is having some serious issues with rust.
All this talk about ships on land makes me really want to see you do an episode on Mikasa. I bet you could convince them to give you a below decks tour.
It's difficult to tell, but is the ship elevated above the water table significantly? It seems like the corrosion could be amplified if the soil around it is saturated.
That's the DCL Magic at the beginning, she has a tail along the waterline at the aft to tell her apart from her sister ship the Wonder, still always hard to tell
The last time I visited seawolf park the Stewart had standing water visible one deck down from the main deck. Can't say if it was rain or sea water. So sad.
LV 103 (Lightship Huron) is dry 'docked' in this manner. it has been this way since about 1974 i believe, but only in the last 10 years or so has i been restored to how it was when it served in lower Lake Huron. its in Port Huron and was given to the city in 1970. if you ever decide to come out here to see it, shoot me an email!
An hour south of Tokyo, Japan on the edge of the bay is a piece of history unique in the world. Embedded in concrete just a few feet from the water is the 114-year-old battleship Mikasa. It's the only surviving pre-dreadnought battleship, not to mention one of the only Imperial navy vessels still intact from that era. It’s another example of a safe, permanent way to display a museum ship.
Greetings, I didn’t read all the comments, so I apologize if you’ve already addressed this issue. When I saw you standing next to Stewart my first thought was about corrosion. With the hull berthed in sand, it seems corrosion from salt spray in the sand would be rapid and inevitable. Is some provision made to drain water away from the hull? Speaking of rusty hulls, what’s the status of USS Olympia? Last I saw, she was in a pretty desperate state, and there was talk of scrapping her. Let’s be careful out there.
I am not sure what the plan is for the USS Orleck once she gets to Jacksonville. We do get hurricanes periodically, for the most part near misses or significantly weakened when the storms get to Jacksonville. Now I am curious and will have to do some research.
You mentioned a drunk coming along and undoing the mooring lines, has that ever happened? Or someone in general doing so and it causing any sort of issue anywhere?
Off toipic, but cat mascots on ships used to be a common thing. There are plenty of pictures of WW 1 ships having cats as well as the tradition going back long before then. When did the navy stop having cats on board? Were there cases of modern ships having cat mascots? Do battleships have rats -- the ostensible reason for having cats on board?
Generally, navies ended the practice of ship cats sometime after WWII; for instance, the Royal Navy banned it in 1975 on the grounds of “hygiene”. And yes, rats continued to be an issue on ships even after WWII, which may be part of the reason why many civilian ships still keep cats around.
I remember that the USS Dupont (DD-941) had a small dog as a mascot during its deployment to the Middle East in 1979-1980. It enhanced their AAW capability because if it encountered any kind of airborne threat, it could throw a terrier at it.
DE-238 was the 3rd to be named after Rear Admiral Charles Steward. Preceding DE-238, was DD-224, which was probably the only US Navy ship to change ownership 3 times during WW2. Scuttled in Surabaya in early 1942, raised by the IJN and put into service by them as an escort vessel and finally returned to the US after the war.
Personal opinion, there is no one correct way to berth a museum ship. It all depends on the condition of the ship, location it's at, and so forth. It is important to maintain these ships as part of our history. I took my two grandsons to visit LST-325 when it visited Paducah KY a few years back, the boys had a blast. Love your videos, keep it up.
I thought the (unrealized) long-term plan for USS Texas was a dry berth...like a dry concrete tub. And then a pool or moat-like water feature surrounded the tub. So visually, Texas looked like she was in the water from most viewing angles, but she was high and dry. It seemed like an elegant solution to protect her against the particularly destructive Houston ship channel water.
Could you explain the restorations going on with the USS North Carolina, I remember seeing quite an intricate cofferdam system there so they could access the hull without drydock, would be cool to hear more about!
We went to Seawolf Park a few months ago, really enjoyed it. Did you get a chance to visit the tall ship Elissa when you were in Galveston. That ship is very cool with the retrofitted engine in it. Would love to see a video about the history of that ship.
I'd love to see you do a video with the UA-camr Drachinifel. He runs a naval history channel and is essentially the British version of you. It would be a really fun video.
Of the four Iowas which is going to need the least amount of preservation work long term based off of their current location ? The New Jersey in a freshwater river up North, The Wisconsin berthed in saltwater in VA, the Iowa again in saltwater but sunny SoCal or the Missouri in tropical Hawaii? I’ve seen cars literally rust away from the top down in Hawaii due to the tropical climate.
I maybe wrong, but my understanding is a big (high tonnage) ship hull would deform if it was put on land. The hull needs the pressure from the water to maintain its shape.
She has a pier waiting for her, though I don't know Jacksonville well enough to say what part of town she will be in exactly. Stay tuned for details as them come. Once she arrives, anticipate at least a month or two, possibly much more, to get set up as a museum, any time you drydock a museum ship there is a lot of putting things back together so it didn't slide around in transit.
@@BattleshipNewJersey im a jacksonville local. Ive seen the proposed pier. As far as i can tell she will simply be moored along side the pier. Im not sure they have considered potential hurricanes/storm surges in their planning as of yet.
I like to think the editor is cutting together the few coherent moments of a mad man rambling for hours about ships
This made me think of that scene from It's Always Sunny where Charlie has a conspiracy theory room with red string everywhere, but it's Ryan and all the newspaper clippings are about battleships
I have watched several of your videos and I just want to say that I appreciate your coverage of ships outside of the New Jersey. it is very nice for you to bring attention to museum ships as a whole. You are single handed educating every generation on something that is very important instead of just focusing on your ship alone. You have a great team, thank you for working so hard to do all of these.
I think for a mighty warship like the New Jersey, there's something more dignified about being in the water than being in the ground. But in the end, economics will rule over dignity.
Wait until you see the hull of the Texas. These are dead ships to never be run under their own power again. Small enough to get on land, it's the only way. BB's, endless cycle drydocking and tons of money.
@@finscreenname ships belong in water. No one said it’s cheap to maintain them. I would MUCH rather visit a museum ship that is in water than on ground.
Agreed.
@@finscreenname to refer to them as “dead ships” is a bit harsh. Yes they won’t move under their own power. But they are not “dead” in any way.
@@shanerobinson7128 I agree, I believe Retired is a far better word to use in this sense
There is also the idea of preserving some ( smaller ) ships *in* a museum. The U-505 sits inside a specifically built building at The Museum Of Science and Industry in Chicago, Ill. Though she has entry and exits cut into her sides for interior tours ( an idea from the old era of displaying ships to the public ), the U-505 is being well preserved for the future. A visit worth taking for those interested. Thanks to Ryan and Battleship New Jersey for a good and thoughtful video!
☺
in summer 2020 I visited Seawolf Park, and over the course of two weeks, helped to troubleshoot power problems with the USS Cavalla's radio, and was able to get the 3 inch guns on the Stewart to both elevate and traverse through their entire firing arcs. your last comment made me think that they are not seized up again? the issue with them was that they were never greased. we got a grease gun and hit every zerk fitting we could find, as well as removed the extremely corroded mild steel bolts that limited their elevation. this, in combination with working the guns around manually, we were able to get all three 3 inch guns to rotate and elevate. a cool thing was that we found no evidence of 'spiking' or welding the breeches of the guns, and we did some practice drills with some dummy rounds for fun. of course the breeches didn't budge, they were rusted stuck. I'm fairly well acquainted with Ryan, the young man who's the main maintenance fellow and caretaker (in his words) who's working there. not sure if he still works there, but he was about 5 months ago, last I spoke with him. tell him the Irish tanker says hello.
Would love to see a 3D VR rendering of the entirety of the New Jersey some day. Virtual walking tours. That would make it immortal.
Photogrammetry goes brr
Someone has done this for parts of littorio and Yamato. In games like warthunder you can use vr in the replay system to navigate the decks at least of some smaller ships
This would definitely be wonderful for those who are interested in museum ships but can't make it out for one reason or another whether it be financial or others that would prevent travel (the last two years, for example for some).
No kidding... True immortality lies in the faithful digitizing of the experience. Not just visually... but really get in there. We've all seen the google earth imagery, and it's great... but within a few years we could be seriously looking at a completely pixel for millimeter virtual reality experience that's no different from walking the halls of the ship. Peeking under work benches. Lying in bunks. It would be time consuming... but in one shot you allow access to the museum itself to millions who cannot visit - and access to spaces not available with tours in person. Preserved for as long as people care to keep the files... likely hundreds or thousands of years.
The Beautiful Disney Wonder making an appearance at the beginning! So cool!!
I was in the Sub service in New London when the SSBN I was on was in off crew for my crew (Gold). The USS Nautilus came into the base and I went down and asked if I could come aboard and tour the boat. I was given permission to come aboard and got full tour since I was an SSBN crew member (Qualified). This was a year before she was sent for decommissioning. It was interesting seeing where nuke powered subs started at. Oh while I was in I also got to meet Admiral Rickover I cannot say where or how but needless to say it was interesting especially for a TMSN at the time. lol
Wow, that must have been interesting.
I took my girls to the Stewart. It was so fun. Great to see you there. Wish I could have seen its boilers and engines. It would have been neat
I think it is a diesel ship not steam, so no propulsion boilers.
May have a small boiler for heat.
@@josephpadula2283 you are the tech version of a grammar nazi. Go to your room and think about what you just told his daughters about their father.🤨
I told her dad the truth?
Ahh "grammar nazi" inadequate refuge of those who can't bear to admit they're wrong, classic projection...
@@josephpadula2283 Yeah but that’s besides the point. 🧐
I think that whatever mooring method each museum ship uses is probably the best for them. There is no one right method, and each ship chooses their method with good reason.
Thank you for the coverage of the Stewart's past and current berthing.
Here in Little Rock, Arkansas, we have the Razorback submarine and the Hoga tug, both very securely moored along the bank of the Arkansas River.
You did a great job timing the start of your video with the cruise ship going by.
I love these videos! They've given me a hankering to revisit the Battleship North Carolina this summer. Haven't been since the 90s.
You guys always do a nice job supporting the museum ships you visit.
"Worrying about drunk people untying the ships in the middle of the night"
Who hurt you, Ryan?
I was wondering about the story behind that one myself.
Bro, his battleship is across the river from Philadelphia, I guarantee Ryan has had negative experiences with Philly sports fans. Philly fans are notorious for being the absolute worst (they riot and fuck up their own city _even when they win_ ) so it's not a stretch to assume that drunk Eagles or Flyers or Phillies or 76ers fans have tried to steal the battleship 😆
@@cleverusername9369 Philadelphia is the main reason I haven’t gone to see the USS New Jersey, Independence Hall, liberty bell etc. I had planned on going but the lockdown hit.
I want to see them before some jerk decides to burn them but for obvious reasons I put that trip off indefinitely. I did go to see the North Carolina. On my next vacation I’ll probably see the USS Wisconsin, VA Beach, the aquarium and Williamsburg instead.
Anyone familiar with the average Louisiana resident would know that's a valid concern 😅
HMS Caroline, the last surviving ship to have fought at Jutland, and a museum ship today, was recently (past couple of years) secured in place with a large hinged boom system, that is a lot more solid than mooring lines and keeps her rigidly in place, while still allowing her to ride up and down with the tide. Previously she was known to have broken free from her moorings at least once during a severe storm.
40 years of getting drunk and it never once crossed my mind to go and untie a warship… obviously I lack imagination
I never thought of that but I was perfectly sober when I considered scaling the ropes just to check out Orleck when it arrived in Jacksonville and hadn't yet opened as a museum ship.
Thanks for mentioning the Batfish!
A lot of people don't even know there is a submarine on display in Oklahoma. I have read they have plans in place now to relocate her a few miles down river rather than move her back to her original spot. Would be cool to see a video if it were possible for you to do one sometime. Keep up the good work!
Would be cool if they opened Batfish at some point. Similarly, the Marlin in Omaha. Only open on the weekend year round. How do some of these museum ships stay solvent without walk in revenue? Must have very good benefactors??
Nice shot of a floating petri dish in your opening shot. Interesting discussion on different preservation techniques.
I like the idea of a graving dock best because it allows you to see the underside of the ship.
Hi Ryan, Wow what a crazy interconnected world this is. Mt Dad served on the USS South Dakota BB57 as a Fleet Marine. He met my Mother before leaving Philadelphia Navy Yard.
The South Dakota was built at NY Ship, which was in Camden NJ. I grew up in Medford NJ. Last time I was back in Philly we were on the deck of the Olympia looking across
the Delaware at the USS New Jersey and thinking next visit, we go aboard. I was just watching your video about Fleet flagships and that one lead me here, and there you are standing on Pelican Island at Seawolf Park????? What the heck, we were just there last weekend! We now live in Galveston. Best to you! Love your videos.
USS Cobia in Manitowoc WI is floating, moored using cables and rope. It does sit pretty high in the water (not loaded enough) but it is well protected just up river from Lake Michigan.
An amazing visit.
That’s where they built them
Slept aboard her as part of a boy scout trip back in 2013. Had an absolute blast and had fun exploring the museum the following day.
Up here in Yukon Canada, we have two preserved sternwheelers, SS Klondike in Whitehorse, and SS Keno in Dawson City. Both are parked beside the rivers they plied. Parks Canada has done a fantastic job preserving both ships, even with the extreme weather both face - tempuratures below -40 and severe snow loads in winter, and scorching long hot days in summer. In at least one event, the Keno suffered damage when the Yukon River broke its banks and flooded the entire downtown Dawson City area. While these are both wooden ships, both are nearly a century old and have endured substantial wear and tear of their own. There's also a third sternwheeler, the SS Nenana in Fairbanks Alaska that Ive not been at yet. All three are worth the visit on their own right, but maybe worth seeing how they've handled their work given their more extreme climates.
That must be a serious challenge in that environment!
I hate to bust a bubble, but the Stewart being imbedded in dirt like that, will have its hull eaten up by rust below ground especially in a region with high annual rainfall unless the hull had been heavily coated with something that prevents water in the soil from coming in contact with the hull. Paint will work in the short term but the water eventually will get through.
The 1st museum ship I ever boarded. The ship that cemented my love for museum ships. The history on this ship. I love the USS Stewart. Oh and the rest of Seawolf Park!
There is probably an online listing of all the ship museums that you can use to plan your next adventure. I highly recommend the Alabama in Mobile, the North Carolina in Wilmington and of course the New Jersey up North in
Camden, New Jersey. My ship from 1984 through 1987 was the carrier Lexington, now on display in Corpus Christi, Texas. I haven't visited her since the day I flew off in 1987, so that is the one I most want to visit next.
Biggest storm I have experienced is Hurricane Hugo (Cat4) onboard USS Eisenhower at sea. Hugo chased us up the Eastern Seaboard all the way to Nova Scotia. We were taking waves over the bow. The Catapults needed deep cleaning from the Seawater infiltration.
That old sub floating like a cork in a bath tub next to those flooded farm houses was hilarious. Reminds me of being a kid and playing in the bathtub with my toy submarine and ships.
You know a flood is bad when a submarine passes by.
I wonder more about the grounded ships like these sinking into the ground itself...i know it sounds wierd but when you get alot of rain or flooding, the ground can soften and thus stationary weight tend to sink into the ground, itself. We have that issue here in mississppi with the houses, which is also why there are no basements or root cellers (or very few).
Thank you Ryan for showing us the Ships In Hurricane Country and how They deal with it .
I live in North Little Rock, Arkansas and we have a small Maritime Park. We have the USS Hoga which was a tugboat @ Pearl Harbor Dec. 7th. We also have a World War 2 Submarine. I think it's the USS Razorback. Not sure. 394 is painted on the conning tower. A lot of volunteers helped refurbish it. I might be wrong but I think they even got the engines to run.
One thing to consider is whether a museum ship is moored in fresh or salt water. The ships in fresh water locations are going to have fewer/slower corrosion problems but that is not to say none. The USS Cod which is afloat in Cleveland was dry docked last summer (2021) to repair hull damage.
Hull damage for a museum ship from ground water when the hull is buried could be mitigated by lining the excavation with impermeable material like a membrane or clay or both. If it works for buried gasoline tanks it would work for a shop's hull.
I live in Houston but grew up in Texas City, TX. I've been through every hurricane that has struck the Houston-Galveston area since Hurricane Carla back in the sixties. As we say here: "Run from the water, hide from the wind".
The only storms I get where I am are heavy rainstorms. As for preservation methods, I think it should be situational/depending on the location and the kind of ship.
Closest USN museum ship to me would be the USS Turner Joy up in Bremerton, WA. Last I saw, she was moored as would considered normal and appropriate for a destroyer of her size.
They have done a wonderful job on the restoration. One of the volunteers mentioned that if the agreement with the USN allowed it to be made operable, it most likely was. He specifically mentioned that if they lost shore power, the EDG could auto-start and pick up the load just as it always had if they chose to line it up to do so.
We were stuck in/on the sand quite often back in 66/67 "way down yonder in Viet Nam". Sometimes they had to bulldoze sand around our bow, but we always managed to get our WW2 LST (Landing Ship, Tank) free and underway again, once we even pulled a PBR off a sandbar down in the delta.
Ryan, always great content. Here's an FYI for you and your viewers. The USS Orlek has the green light to be towed from Port Arthur TX to Jacksonville FL sometime during February/March. To start a new life on the Jacksonville waterfront as a floating museum. Hope you can be there when she arrives.
The Disney cruise line in the back ground at the start of the video😂😂
But great video as always, keep it up!!
Always love your videos! We have the USS Slater here in albany ny and always love seeing her as I drive by. And i make a point to do so!
I wish the USS North Carolina had a channel like this! Thank you for all the information you give. I love Battleships and wish there was still a viable way for the Navy to continue to use them.
Love this channel. Keep up the good work.
Cool to see the Disney cruise ship too. I know that I’ve been on it as well. The Disney wonder is the only one of the fleet that comes into and departs from Galveston.
I recently saw a video of the SS Great Britan and thought it was an amazing way to preeerve a ship on land while still looking like the ship was at see. What do you think of how the dhip is perservesd and do you think something like it could be used in a ship the size of New Jersey ?
Have a look at the Cuty Sark too. Looks stunning
Here in Southern California we have four museum ships. All are afloat although at least one probably could end up being land locked. In San Diego is USS Midway. Los Angeles has SS Lane Victory and USS Iowa. In Long Beach is RMS Queen Mary which is not Navy but did serve in WW II as a troop ship. It is the one ship in deepest distress. It is also the oldest of the four. I don't know if Long Beach is considering "land bounding" the ship, but that certainly seems to be a reasonable option as it needs extensive repairs.
Loved the Disney Cruise ship in the background; was that deliberate?
I wish you showed more of that DE. My father served in an Everts class DE36.
Been to and support the DE Slater in Albany.
Talking about museum ship berthering, you definitely could mention the Mikasa in Japan where in the 20s they just incased her in concrete and left her on the bayside
He has. It was a terrible idea, because it accelerates corrosion
I believe she’s not filled with concrete, just several of her below waterline hatches are sealed with concrete.
She was incased, not filled, in concrete. This was done because of the Washington arms treaty so that she could never sail again. If they had not done this, she would have had to have been scrapped to meet treaty requirements. She went through WW2 that way and after the war I understand occupying troops welded her gun breaches, just in case.
Hi Ryan
Thank you for the great videos i have been watching them for a long time.
If you ever come to Denmark I will be glad to take you on a tour of our museum ships.
We have ships that have been salvaged from the viking age through the 17th century and cold war era diesel submarienes (on wich my farther served)
Big storms near me? I'm in Tornado Alley so there's that. A local Air Museum several years ago did take a very near miss that spared the building but did ruin some out door static displays. A Cessna 0-2 and a Prescott Pusher come to mind, luckily some bigger stuff like B-52 and B-47 came through mostly unscathed.
Thanks for mentioning the USS Batfish (SS-310)! Great ship with a great history! I'd love to see y'all do a video about her some time!
USS Batfish is the nearest museum ship to me (in Oklahoma), and the fact that she WAS dry berthed but the plans are now to have her floating dockside in the Arkansas River does have me concerned for her long-term viability. If the organization that owns her was unable to maintain her in a dry berth, I'm concerned that having her afloat is only going to increase maintenance issues down the road. No one wants to see what happened with USS Ling happen with Batfish--or any museum ship, for that matter.
It's a sort of commentary on US Navy museum ships that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry was able to do for U-505 what no one has yet done for any American museum ship . . . a permanent indoor dry berth. It's entirely feasible at this point that a German Type IXC U-boat may outlast all of the US Navy warships of WWII.
Her dry berth was a poor man's dry dock which was improvised after they discovered that she was too long to make it through a bend in the river further upstream to her intended home at the Port of Catoosa, that and she wasn't sufficiently moored as no one ever expected the river to flood high enough to float her over the top of the berm enclosing her berth. This has also had the unintended consequence of her being in an area where she doesn't have the tourist volume required to generate the revenue necessary to keep her in really good condition.
You seem to forget that a Sub hull is made to work in pressure from all sides, giving the boat a more rigid frame to prevent pancaking
There are some entirely preserved midget subs and pt boats that have been in airconnend warehouses or museums for a long while, sad it cant happen for all ships but they're just small enough to preserve so easily.
I suspect that burying the hull like this has long term corrosion issues just as a ship in its design element (water) does. A lot easier to examine and dry dock a ship that’s floating like Battleship New Jersey.
Over in the UK there are at least three museum ships stored in another way, essentially permanent dry dock. I suspect that flooding is not a major issue for the locations.
One is the HMS Victory in Portsmouth Dockyard.
Another is the clipper ship Cutty Sark in Greenwich. She’s in Greenwich UK in a specially built dry dock. There’s now some sort of glassed over covering of the dry dock making it an exhibit space and allowing visitors to see the hull. I saw her in summer of 1969 as a NY Maritime Cadet on a training cruise (long before that cover, and the disastrous fire).
The third is the steamship Great Britain. She’s in Bristol. LoL! Only reason I know about her covered dry dock is a UA-cam video from History Hits that watched just before this one 😇
Last time i saw Cutty Sark, she was burning down to her iron ribs.
There’s also the WW1 monitor HMS M33 in a similar setup near HMS Victory in Portsmouth dockyard.
Can’t wait to find out when,how and why they decided to stick it in the dirt.
If I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question…
@@Masada1911 lol
Me too
@@Masada1911 Sounds like you work there. Is being in the dirt better for the steel than being in fresh or brackish water?
@@jimmiles33 The water is extremely brackish due to the location, even the air is incredibly salty.
There has been a lot of talk about putting the Texas in a Dry Berth or a Dry Dock. Now, the Lexington will need work, but they used cement for ballast and it is having some serious issues with rust.
All this talk about ships on land makes me really want to see you do an episode on Mikasa. I bet you could convince them to give you a below decks tour.
We really want to see her. We will definitely get there eventually!
@@BattleshipNewJersey Looking forwards to it!
Great vid NJ..you guys should come down to tampa since your so close..tampa bay would adore to have yall as guest...
From Chicago, the snow and rain did a number on U-505 until the Museum of Science and Industry sunk it into it's own chamber underground.
Awsome video but it was also awesome to see that Disney Ship in the background at the beginning
Love the Disney Wonder in the background.
Last time I visited the USS Alabama the USS drum had one heck of a list to it. That was many years ago though
I fish right there. Love the Stewart and the sub. Cavalla sunk lots of tonnage. And..good flounder fishin .
We get storms and king tides in SF but I think the bay keeps the ships at Hyde Street Pier safe enough.
Yes. I’m a volunteer on the USS Hornet and even in our worst storms, they are perfectly safe
So what kind of hull monitoring system does the Stewart have? Sand is not a benign environment.
It's difficult to tell, but is the ship elevated above the water table significantly? It seems like the corrosion could be amplified if the soil around it is saturated.
That's the DCL Magic at the beginning, she has a tail along the waterline at the aft to tell her apart from her sister ship the Wonder, still always hard to tell
And the Disney Wonder photobombing it at the beginning :)
Great video thank you 🙏. Good point to consider
Great video from the battleship.
I live close to Wilhelmshaven and the ships are still in the water. Some smaller units have been put on land, though.
Great video! I helped look for lost items after Hurricane Ike. Great Naval park.
I try to go down to Seawolf at least once a year to give these two some love, thanks for the patronage for them.
The last time I visited seawolf park the Stewart had standing water visible one deck down from the main deck. Can't say if it was rain or sea water. So sad.
Come see us now! We think you will be pleasantly surprised!
What is the prognosis for IJN Mikasa (forced into concrete by the Washington Naval Treaty) and HMS Victory?
LV 103 (Lightship Huron) is dry 'docked' in this manner. it has been this way since about 1974 i believe, but only in the last 10 years or so has i been restored to how it was when it served in lower Lake Huron. its in Port Huron and was given to the city in 1970.
if you ever decide to come out here to see it, shoot me an email!
An hour south of Tokyo, Japan on the edge of the bay is a piece of history unique in the world. Embedded in concrete just a few feet from the water is the 114-year-old battleship Mikasa. It's the only surviving pre-dreadnought battleship, not to mention one of the only Imperial navy vessels still intact from that era. It’s another example of a safe, permanent way to display a museum ship.
I live about 20 miles from the USS Batfish. It was pretty crazy watching the ole girl float again. I like to think she just wanted to fight again.
Here in San Francisco, sometimes it rains. USS Hornet CV-12 Museum in Oakland, she gets a little bit damp in the winter sprinkle. Oh, no.
Greetings,
I didn’t read all the comments, so I apologize if you’ve already addressed this issue.
When I saw you standing next to Stewart my first thought was about corrosion.
With the hull berthed in sand, it seems corrosion from salt spray in the sand would be rapid and inevitable.
Is some provision made to drain water away from the hull?
Speaking of rusty hulls, what’s the status of USS Olympia?
Last I saw, she was in a pretty desperate state, and there was talk of scrapping her.
Let’s be careful out there.
I am not sure what the plan is for the USS Orleck once she gets to Jacksonville. We do get hurricanes periodically, for the most part near misses or significantly weakened when the storms get to Jacksonville. Now I am curious and will have to do some research.
WIth NJ in fresh water that helps way more than being high and dry. Much less corrosion speed from fresh vs salt.
I would like to see a video of all the moored museum ships in the US, a brief description and where they are located. Thanks
There are about 100! If you go to HNSA.org they have a map of all of them that you can sort by ship type
You mentioned a drunk coming along and undoing the mooring lines, has that ever happened? Or someone in general doing so and it causing any sort of issue anywhere?
Off toipic, but cat mascots on ships used to be a common thing. There are plenty of pictures of WW 1 ships having cats as well as the tradition going back long before then. When did the navy stop having cats on board? Were there cases of modern ships having cat mascots? Do battleships have rats -- the ostensible reason for having cats on board?
I think they made a video about Ship mascots if I remember correctly.
Generally, navies ended the practice of ship cats sometime after WWII; for instance, the Royal Navy banned it in 1975 on the grounds of “hygiene”. And yes, rats continued to be an issue on ships even after WWII, which may be part of the reason why many civilian ships still keep cats around.
I remember that the USS Dupont (DD-941) had a small dog as a mascot during its deployment to the Middle East in 1979-1980. It enhanced their AAW capability because if it encountered any kind of airborne threat, it could throw a terrier at it.
While I haven't been on the New Jersey, I have been on the Disney Wonder and the Disney Magic, one of which, passed behind you.
DE-238 was the 3rd to be named after Rear Admiral Charles Steward. Preceding DE-238, was DD-224, which was probably the only US Navy ship to change ownership 3 times during WW2. Scuttled in Surabaya in early 1942, raised by the IJN and put into service by them as an escort vessel and finally returned to the US after the war.
I'm wondering how successful encasing Mikasa in concrete will be in preserving her, compared to other dry births, or leaving her in the water.
Thanks for doing this man
Personal opinion, there is no one correct way to berth a museum ship. It all depends on the condition of the ship, location it's at, and so forth. It is important to maintain these ships as part of our history. I took my two grandsons to visit LST-325 when it visited Paducah KY a few years back, the boys had a blast. Love your videos, keep it up.
I thought the (unrealized) long-term plan for USS Texas was a dry berth...like a dry concrete tub. And then a pool or moat-like water feature surrounded the tub. So visually, Texas looked like she was in the water from most viewing angles, but she was high and dry. It seemed like an elegant solution to protect her against the particularly destructive Houston ship channel water.
Could you explain the restorations going on with the USS North Carolina, I remember seeing quite an intricate cofferdam system there so they could access the hull without drydock, would be cool to hear more about!
Heres a video we did on that: ua-cam.com/video/aFcOm6dkuoc/v-deo.html
The New Jersey being up river , is the water less salty ? If not could she be towed further up river so she is in fresh water to reduce corrosion ?
Look into the USS Inagural. It was a museum ship on the St Louis river front that was sunk due to a flood.
How do they keep the sand from corroding the Sewart's hull?
SSN 639 Surgeon class sail looks almost exactly like the earlier giant Skipjack class. Would like to know if any of those were saved
We went to Seawolf Park a few months ago, really enjoyed it. Did you get a chance to visit the tall ship Elissa when you were in Galveston. That ship is very cool with the retrofitted engine in it. Would love to see a video about the history of that ship.
I'd love to see you do a video with the UA-camr Drachinifel. He runs a naval history channel and is essentially the British version of you. It would be a really fun video.
drachinifel is the curator of a battleship museum?
@@SuperAWaC he isn't. I meant more in the sense that they look like they could have been long lost brothers lol.
Of the four Iowas which is going to need the least amount of preservation work long term based off of their current location ? The New Jersey in a freshwater river up North, The Wisconsin berthed in saltwater in VA, the Iowa again in saltwater but sunny SoCal or the Missouri in tropical Hawaii? I’ve seen cars literally rust away from the top down in Hawaii due to the tropical climate.
From what I’ve seen Missouri gets taken pretty good care of
I think the USS Ling would have a nice home dock in one of our Colorado safe fresh water reservoirs.
I maybe wrong, but my understanding is a big (high tonnage) ship hull would deform if it was put on land. The hull needs the pressure from the water to maintain its shape.
If it were supported in all the right places with footers like the blocking used when dry-docking, it'd be fine.
Curious what they will do with the orleck if she does indeed come to jacksonville. Have you heard any news on that front?
She has a pier waiting for her, though I don't know Jacksonville well enough to say what part of town she will be in exactly. Stay tuned for details as them come. Once she arrives, anticipate at least a month or two, possibly much more, to get set up as a museum, any time you drydock a museum ship there is a lot of putting things back together so it didn't slide around in transit.
@@BattleshipNewJersey im a jacksonville local. Ive seen the proposed pier. As far as i can tell she will simply be moored along side the pier. Im not sure they have considered potential hurricanes/storm surges in their planning as of yet.
What did they do to her running gear? Are shafts,struts, rudders and the propellers still in place?