…or why we went to Philadelphia. The United States offers plenty of opportunities to see big boats masquerading as museums and I have been to a few of them. Most recently, the light ship Columbia, a floating lighthouse that helped ships find their way to the mouth of the Columbia River from 1951 to 1979. Also, in Norfolk VA, the battleship USS Wisconsin. Even the WWII-era German U-boat, captured by the US Navy in 1944 and currently on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry
But I’d never seen a ship in dry dock until the USS New Jersey (same class battleship as the Wisconsin) went into dry dock for some repair work and painting this spring. Usually the New Jersey is available for tours at its pier in Camden NJ, but the most suitable dry dock (built back in the 1920s and still functioning) is in the Navy Ship Yard in Philadelphia. Tours of the ship exterior in dry dock, seemed like a once in a lifetime experience. So we went.
Dry docks work like locks. The ship pulls in. Supporting blocks get placed under her (inspected by divers to ensure proper location) The water gets drained out, held out by a caisson that holds back — in this case — the Delaware River. Workers will be repairing and painting the 887-foot ship for most of May.
Imagining the various complex systems that keep a ship afloat and functioning, even as a museum, to say nothing of being a fully functioning war vessel is kind of hard to get my head around. The New Jersey first launched on Dec. 7, 1942 and served in the Pacific during World War II. Decommissioned for the final time in 1991, she had served through the Korean and Vietnam wars and did duty in the Mediterranean during the Persian Gulf War. Additional photos for scale:
Note the guys near lower red-painted hull section for scale.
Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now 