Restored Intrepid Returns

[Jack Ray]

Not much info on the actual restoration work performed, but still interesting..

Restored Intrepid Returns
Aircraft carrier survived wars, years of decay
By Richard Pyle, Associated Press
Washington Times
September 30, 2008

NEW YORK -- Almost two years after being pried ignominiously from the mud by a phalanx of huffing tugboats and towed off to a shipyard for a major overhaul, the historic aircraft carrier Intrepid is returning home.

Freshly painted in naval "haze gray" and once again shipshape from stern to bow, the fabled survivor of Pacific World War II battles and five kamikaze suicide attacks will be towed up New York Harbor and slotted into its familiar Hudson River berth on Thursday.

The floating military and space museum will reopen to the public on Nov. 8, with a large celebration on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

"With everything else that's going on, it may seem like a pimple on an elephant. but I can't tell you how excited we are," said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

He spent much of the past year lining up private benefactors to help finance the ship's 22-month, $120 million restoration.

On the enclosed hangar deck, the museum will offer new exhibits and facilities for public events, along with visitor access to crew quarters and other spaces previously off limits.

The outdoor flight deck array of about 30 vintage aircraft has five additions: a pair of Soviet-designed MiG fighters, a Grumman F11F fighter that in the 1960s was part of the Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team, and two 1950s-era helicopters.

Among five retired World War II aircraft carriers serving today as museums, none has a record to match Intrepid's. Launched in 1943, it fought in six major Pacific campaigns and lost 270 crew members - mostly to Japanese kamikazes. It also served in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was twice a recovery ship for NASA astronauts before being decommissioned in 1974.

Marked for the scrap yard, the 36,000-ton relic was rescued in 1981 by real estate developer and philanthropist Zachary Fisher, who brought it to New York to be turned into the museum that in recent years has attracted 750,000 visitors annually, its officials say.

In 1986, it was designated a national historic landmark.

In 2005, after 23 years, both vessel and pier were deemed in serious need of restoration.

But when a team of powerful tugboats tried to dislodge the ship, its rudder and four 15-foot bronze screws dug into what Army engineers would later call an underwater "speed bump" - 17 feet of accumulated Hudson River mud.

After that much-ridiculed fiasco, three weeks of dredging freed the ship to be moved to a Bayonne, N.J., shipyard on Dec. 6, 2006 - the day before the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Internal work was performed later on Staten Island.

Mr. White said overall costs for the ship's restoration topped out close to $120 million - $55 million for the ship and $65 million to rebuild Pier 86 with new space for a British Airways Concorde supersonic jet that had been on a barge.

The Army and Navy spent $20 million more to dredge a new trench to cradle the carrier's 900-foot hull.

Timed to coincide with the ship's return is the publication of a book, "Intrepid: The Epic Story of America's Most Legendary Warship," co-authored by Mr. White and ex-Navy pilot Robert Gandt, with a foreword by Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who served on the Intrepid in its pre-Vietnam War days.

[Ultimo Tiger]

Reopens on my Birthday I see

My parents went to sea her when they went to New York but it wasn't there due to it being done up and such. Still, they got me a nice t-shirt

[ASFC]

Yep same here-I was bit disapponted when I went to New York last year to find her not in her dock but elsewhere in refit.

Good to see she is returning!

[Tracy White]

Otis Elevator was looking for details on the aircraft elevators; some of the restoration revolved around that I know....

[Devin]

I wonder what date they'll tow her back to the pier. Now that I'm working nights, I can be out there to get some decent photos.

[Jack Ray]

I wonder what date they'll tow her back to the pier. Now that I'm working nights, I can be out there to get some decent photos.

From the article, it looks like they are towing her back tomorrow.

Get out your telephoto!

Jack

[Devin]

Wow, I totally missed that in the article. Thanks for pointing it out!

[MartinJQuinn]

Wow, I totally missed that in the article. Thanks for pointing it out!

That's what happens when you work nights!

He's just a gigolo, and everybody knows...

[Devin]

That's what happens when you work nights!

He's just a gigolo, and everybody knows...

If I were a gigolo I'd be making more money. Well... maybe not.

[Jack Ray]

Wow, I totally missed that in the article. Thanks for pointing it out!

If you get some good pics why not post them on the website? That would be a good exclusive.

Best,

Jack

[Devin]

If you get some good pics why not post them on the website? That would be a good exclusive.

Best,

Jack

Will do. I live less than a quarter-mile from the Hudson River, directly across from the Empire State Building. As long as I can lock down what time they're moving her, and it's before I have to report to work at 6 p.m., I should be able to get some good shots. Supposed to be nice weather tomorrow.

[Jack Ray]

If you get some good pics why not post them on the website? That would be a good exclusive.

Best,

Jack

Will do. I live less than a quarter-mile from the Hudson River, directly across from the Empire State Building. As long as I can lock down what time they're moving her, and it's before I have to report to work at 6 p.m., I should be able to get some good shots. Supposed to be nice weather tomorrow.

Good luck!

Jack

[Gerarddm]

That book title is a bit of hyberbole puffery, no? "...America's most legendary warship"

I would rather think that Constitution, Monitor, or Enterprise better deserve that.


edit:spelling

[chuck]

That book title is a bit of hyberbole puffery, no? "...America's most legenedary warship"

I would rather think that Constitution, Monitor, or Enterprise better deserve that.

Not to mention Missouri, Arizona, Merrimack, Olympic, etc, etc, etc.....

I dare say that, were it not for the museum, very few Americans would have ever heard of the Intrepid. Hardly can a warship be regarded as legendary in any honorable sense if she became well known mainly for having been turned into a tourist attraction. Did she serve long and well? Yes. Was she legendary? No.

[Tracy White]

SELL the ship gentlemen! Make them forget she was a damage magnet....

[Ultimo Tiger]

She's legendary, just not on the level her peers are.

Legendary for bad luck as well I suppose

[Devin]

I have more photos that I will be sending in to Tim and Sean. She passed by me on the 14th street pier in Hoboken at 1 p.m., so the sun was not that forgiving, lots of washing out in the details. I'm trying to push them with Photoshop.

[Jack Ray]

Very cool!!

We look forward to seeing the rest.

Thanks Devin!

Jack

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice!

[Timmy C]

Moar!