THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 28, 1996 TAG: 9609280233
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 79 lines
Forced from its retirement home in Philadelphia, where the Navy formally closed its shipyard Friday, the battleship Wisconsin will return to Hampton Roads next month in search of a new resting spot.
The fate of its sister ship, the Iowa, which has been berthed nearby, remains unknown. But that dreadnaught, which Norfolk city officials have considered purchasing from the federal government, also may be moved to this region.
Navy sources in Norfolk and Philadelphia confirmed Friday that the Wisconsin, which was retired for the third time at the Norfolk Naval Station in 1991, will be towed from a wharf near the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Oct. 15 and arrive in Hampton Roads two days later.
The Wisconsin's new home will be the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, where it will remain in mothballs.
The battleship is too tall to fit under the James River Bridge, preventing the Navy from adding it to the government's large idle fleet anchored upriver.
Neither will it fit beneath theGilmerton Bridge on the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, which it would have to pass to join 30 ships mothballed at the mouth of St. Julian's Creek.
The Wisconsin's move comes as Philadelphia city officials begin plans to commercially develop the wharves where the Navy's old battleships are tied up.
The Navy formally closed the adjoining shipyard Friday, and earlier closed other nearby Navy facilities as part of the military streamlining ordered by Congress in 1993.
``It's still being decided how fast the city wants that property up there. Navy official. ``That's all up in the air right now.''
The battleships are among four retired from 1990 to 1992, when they were deemed too expensive to maintain.
Along with the Missouri and New Jersey, the Wisconsin and Iowa were commissioned during World War II, retired after the Korean War and recommissioned during the Reagan administration's military buildup in the 1980s.
The Missouri and New Jersey, both kept at Bremerton, Wash., have found new homes as tourist attractions.
The Missouri, on whose planking the Japanese surrendered to Gen. Douglas MacArthur to end World War II, will be docked in Honolulu, the Navy decided last month.
Honolulu had vied with Bremerton, Wash., San Francisco and Long Beach, Calif., in seeking the decommissioned battleship for use as a nonprofit museum.
The New Jersey, meanwhile, is to be towed from Bremerton, through the Panama Canal and up to Jersey City, N.J., where it, too, will become a museum.
The price of towing such ships is a large part of their acquisition cost: In the New Jersey's case, those costs run into the millions.
``Those folks sure wish it had been berthed in Philadelphia, instead of Bremerton,'' said one Navy official. ``What they ought to do is just switch some name tags.''
Norfolk City Councilman W.R. ``Randy'' Wright, an advocate of acquiring the Iowa as a museum for Norfolk, said Friday he still hopes that is possible.
``We're still working on that,'' he said. ``Fairly recently I went to the state of Iowa and met with the chief of staff for the governor. . . . They have made a commitment to put $1 million in the budget that the governor will submit in January to the restoration of the ship. They are pretty keen on it coming to Norfolk.''
If the Navy must move the Iowa to the Portsmouth shipyard, it would save those trying to acquire the battleship several hundred thousand dollars, at the least.
If the Iowa doesn't come here, would the Wisconsin suit Norfolk?
Wright chuckled at the thought, saying: ``You know, you take what you can get. But from the perspective of making an investment in a ship just because it is here . . . I think Iowa certainly holds more history to it, and I would love to have it down here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
U.S.S. Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: U.S.S. WISCONSIN by CNB