PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Battleship New Jersey is a big fish out of water right now, getting much-needed maintenance while in dry dock at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Reporters on Thursday were invited on a tour to gain a new perspective on the floating memorial and museum — and that perspective is from below.
The crew flooded the dock to load the warship then drained it, with the ship precisely coming to rest on 302 wood-topped concrete blocks.
Tour guide Libby Jones walked reporters underneath the battleship to its keel, or spine — in a sense, recreating last week’s eclipse.
“Underneath the ship here, you can see all the way down there, that light, daylight,” Jones said.
The ship was more than 10 years overdue for this dry-dock maintenance, but crews at the Navy Yard were pleasantly surprised by how well it has held up: no holes, and only some minor rust issues.
They did find some uninvited guests, however: “If you look closely at those dark spots, that’s where the spiders live.”
Maintenance workers are almost finished stripping off the old paint and cleaning up the underside. The battleship will get three fresh coats — about 3,000 gallons, Jones said — including a new red bottom.
At nearly 900 feet long and 45,000 tons, this is no small job of course.
“One of the problems for the ship is she’s sitting on these blocks,” said Jones. “You can’t paint underneath the blocks. So in a matter of weeks, we will refloat the ship to move her 4 feet, so we can paint where the blocks used to be.”
Jones says the beautified ship will head back home to Camden in late May or early June.