DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708270586

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MILITARY 

SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   87 lines

BEER, COMPANY SINK IN EFFORT TO BRING BATTLESHIP TO NORFOLK

The SOS went out but, in the end, it couldn't save the ship.

Two years ago, S.O.S. Amber Ale was created to raise money for towing the battleship Iowa from Philadelphia, where it's mothballed, to Norfolk, where backers hope it could become part or all of a nautical museum.

But the pricey $5 tag on each commemorative bottle of beer may have been enough to sink fund-raising efforts, said Norfolk City Councilman Randy Wright, who started the ship-saving campaign locally in early 1995.

Dallas County Brewing Co., in Adel, Iowa, which produced and distributed the 22-ounce bottles of beer, has gone bankrupt, Wright said.

``The price (of the S.O.S. Amber Ale) may have been the undoing of the company,'' Wright said. ``But it was a large bottle, with a special design. That was the marketing plan, to make it a keepsake.''

Beer sales kicked off on Sept. 1, 1995, on the ship's deck at its berth in Philadelphia, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the close of World War II. Members of the Veterans Association of the USS Iowa were on hand for the celebration and start of the fund-raising campaign.

The Iowa, one of four massive battleships of the class bearing its name, accompanied its sister ship, the Missouri, into Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945. It was on the Missouri that Japanese officials signed documents of surrender for Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Perhaps the Iowa's greatest notoriety, however, came with tragedy in 1989, when an explosion involving one of its 16-inch guns killed 47 sailors in its Turret No. 2.

Each bottle of beer had the silhouette and name of the Iowa baked on the glass in three colors. One dollar from every bottle sold was to go to a fund to tow, moor, restore and display the battleship somewhere on Norfolk's waterfront, possibly at Nauticus or at Harbor Park, Wright said.

The project would cost roughly $3.5 million.

``I'm not sure exactly how much was raised before the company ceased to manufacture and distribute the beer about a year ago,'' Wright said.

Repeated efforts to reach Kevin L. Rice, president of the brewing company were unsuccessful.

But Robert D. Hentrich, one of the 3,000 members of the Iowa's veterans association, said, ``Nothing was raised. We never saw any of the money.''

Hentrich, an Iowa resident and member of the association's museum committee, said he believed that the company had been ``well-intending.''

But costs, with shipping, for each bottle of beer ended up being $12, rather than $5, Hentrich said. Hentrich said that about 50,000 bottles of the brew were produced. But of that total, more than 28,000 bottles of ale ended up in Denver, where they were sold for 50 cents each.

A mailing to association members last year, asking for donations toward the museum, netted $12,000, Hentrich said, bringing the total battleship fund to $60,000. The next plan is to include a note on every Iowa tax return, asking taxpayers if they'd like to donate to the cause.

Neither Wright nor the association has given up hope of eventually bringing the Iowa to Norfolk, where it was homeported from 1984 to 1990.

``We feel that Nauticus - all of us - would benefit from the Iowa being saved and made into a museum,'' Hentrich said. ``It's just so sad that things like this get dragged out for so long.''

Gloria Carvalho, manager of the federal government's ship donation program in Washington, D.C., said that although six ships - including the only battleship, the Iowa - are available for donation to nonprofit organizations, no application is on file from anyone locally or in Iowa. A group from San Francisco recently toured the ship and is interested in obtaining it.

But Wright said he did help fill out the six-part application, including maintenance, financial, towing, mooring, security and EPA compliance plans.

``The project is on the back burner, but it's not dead,'' Wright said. ``Funding has been a problem, but if the Iowa General Assembly can get the donation question put on tax returns, the effort will be reinvigorated. Clearly, people in Iowa want the ship to come to Norfolk.''

Wright has made three trips to the Midwestern state to promote the museum project.

A minimum of $1 million has to be raised, Hentrich and Wright said, to launch the project, which would begin with towing the vessel from Philadelphia. Then it would have to be moored properly, prepared for general admission, possibly prepared for handicapped accessibility, and maintained.

Currently, 43 United States ships, including 20 submarines, are museums open to the public. Carvalho said the government's 50-year-old ship donation agency is eager to adopt out the other six. ILLUSTRATION: DALLAS COUNTY BREWING CO.

VIRGINIAN-PILOT FILE

The Iowa, above, is mothballed in Philadelphia. A plan to bring the

battleship to Norfolk and turn it into a museum was being funded in

part by the sale of commemorative bottles of S.O.S. Amber Ale,

below. But the company who made the beer has gone bankrupt.

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