THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270450
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
A lot of people apparently wouldn't mind if a battleship cruised up the Elizabeth River, docked beside Nauticus, and stayed there.
A movement of sorts has begun to persuade the city to take one of the four battleships the Navy no longer wants and install it at the downtown waterfront as a tourist attraction.
Across the river, Portsmouth is also toying with the idea of a teak-decked surplus dreadnought to draw visitors.
``We are doing some very preliminary research in what it would cost and what the benefits would be,'' said Michael Stephens, Portsmouth's director of public affairs.
The theory in Norfolk is that a battleship would help Nauticus, a vaguely battleship-shaped theme park, draw visitors and pay its bills.
``Norfolk is the Navy, and the Navy is Norfolk,'' Daniel Montague, a proponent of the plan told the City Council this week. ``We should get this ship.''
The favored vessel so far in Norfolk is the Missouri, a battlewagon that ran aground here in 1947 and has a loyal following in the area. In addition, General Douglas MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender on board the ship in 1945. This would tie the ship in with the MacArthur memorial in Norfolk, supporters say.
The Navy announced recently it is getting rid of the Missouri, along with its three classmates, the Iowa, the Wisconsin and the New Jersey. Now mothballed, the ships cost the Navy $100,000 annually to maintain. The Navy would give them to willing nonprofit organizations and municipalities.
The Navy has already had inquiries from San Francisco and Hawaii about the Missouri, which may be the most coveted because of its historic significance.
Norfolk City Manager James B. Oliver and Councilman Randy Wright say they have received numerous phone calls from citizens urging the city to investigate the possibility of putting a battleship on the Elizabeth River.
But Oliver also said a battleship along the waterfront is a long shot. The city at one point considered bringing a mothballed aircraft carrier here, he said, and found the upkeep costs were enormous.
``The numbers are pretty forbidding,'' Oliver said.
Even if the city got the ship for free, it would have to maintain it. The Missouri carried 1,600 crew members when fully staffed.
Still, Oliver took the idea seriously enough to ask Montague and Wright if they would like to serve on a committee to study the idea.
``I think it's a good idea and we ought to look into it,'' Councilman Wright said.
The 57,000-ton Missouri ran aground in Norfolk in 1947 as it was entering Hampton Roads. The calamity created one of the better fishing spots in the area, said Ron Hess, a fan of the Missouri.
Getting a battleship ``would be great,'' said Hess, a Norfolk gun dealer whose father was serving on the Missouri when it ran aground. ``This Nauticus idea has just quite never made it, and we need something that would pick it up.''
Hess said the place where the ship ran aground off the Thimble Shoals Light, is still a popular fishing spot.
It's called ``the Moe Hole,'' although many people do not know that ``Moe'' refers to the battleship, Hess said. The deep hole was created when the Navy had to use explosives to blast the stuck ship free of the bottom.
Other cities have found ways of covering the maintenance of a battleship.
In Wilmington, N.C., visitors pay $6 to step aboard the North Carolina. A state agency runs the operation, but supports the ship solely on admission fees, gift sales and donations. The battleship has been parked at Wilmington since 1961, after a grass-roots campaign brought it to the area. The budget for the ship and its related tourist center is $2 million a year, said its director, Capt. David Scheu.
About 250,000 people a year visit the ship, Scheu said. Scheu predicted more people would visit such a ship in Hampton Roads, a larger metropolitan area than Wilmington. The North Carolina is smaller than the Iowa-class ships like the Missouri. by CNB