"USS Texas moving for repairs...." Topic

The Battleship Texas is getting ready to be towed to Galveston for repairs.

link

Sounds a really interesting subject but the link will not allow me in. USS Texas must be quite some age now…careful tow needed.

I think the oldest ironclad, still afloat, that I have clambered aboard was the little Aurora in Leningrad.

Not too many true battleships still around outside USA. UK has none (not in armour plate anyway), do the Japanese still have one, a pre Dreadnought? Even the Greeks or is that just a cruiser? Other than that……must Google that now and retract everything, as I am totally wrong!

USA was brilliant at preserving such artifacts, even if a bit late in the day. If only Enterprise and Saratoga had been kept. But what does remain is infinitely better than what the impoverished UK scrapped, for their metal value, in the 50s.

Deadhead, check khou.com and search for "Battleship Texas".

She's the only battleship left afloat that fought in both World Wars.

Mikasa in Japan was built in the late 1890's early 1900's. Togo's flagship at Tsushima.

Mikasa, dassit! Cheers..

Murphy. Your Nomme de Plume suggests we may share a country of origin. Your second link still is totally rejected by my PC. But USS Texas as the only one that served in both WWs, that is brilliant.

She is not in good shape. She listed a few years ago due to a breach and her stern was closed because of deterioration.

I'm amazed they can tow it. I thought that the bottom was rotting out so badly that they were going to need to essentially beach it.

She was in bad shape, and was going to be dry berthed. Problem was, she was so bad that all the dry berth money went to making repairs to keep her from breaking her back.

A few years ago, she could not have been moved. The engines are part of the structure, and they would have dropped out of the hull and her sinking would block the Houston Ship Channel. Not the case any more. Along with repairs, the Battleship Texas Foundation (running the ship for the state) filled most of the blister tanks along her flanks with expanding foam that has stopped the vast majority of the leaks. According to the website, leakage has gone from 1,500-2,000 gpm to only 5 gpm.

battleshiptexas.org/faq

I will be sad to see her leave the current location; it's been there all my life and I currently only live about 7 miles away. If that is what it takes to keep her for another hundred years, though, then OK.
BWW

Thanks for sharing Brian. Amazed she's still afloat.

Brian, I agree. I'm wondering where she will end up. Right now I know they are discussing Baytown and Beaumont. Both of them are horrid places. I'd rather see her in Galveston, near Seawolf Park.

They would have to dredge a channel to get her even near Seawolf Park. I suspect it would be somewhere near the Elissa and the cruise ships, for maximum visibility.

I grew up 20 miles north of Beaumont. All I can say about that idea is, "Yuck. No." That town has gone downhill since the 1970s.

EDIT: Baytown is a looooong shot on the best of days. Not that much different from the current location, really.

Damn, I've been meaning to take my daughter to see it.

Brian, I suspect you are right. I didn't think about the lack of depth of water around Seawolf Park. Down near the Elissa and The Strand would be nice but that area is also pretty crowded.
Beaumont would be awful and Baytown almost as bad.

All good news for the preservation of the ship!

I'm a huge fan of the Texas, and am fortunate to have had a guided tour of the guts of the ship. It's a true artifact and should not have been allowed to decay so badly. It's very fortunate that the ship has remained in one piece.
As a native resident, I agree with the sentiments about Baytown and Beaumont. They're disgusting places and entirely unsuitable for the Texas. Galveston would be great, but I wonder about space to properly mount the ship. I think she needs to be out of the salt water to slow the corrosion.

I have not been following the details of the "Texas" preservation but am glad to see that the money I've contributed in honor of some deceased friends with navalist views has been well expended. Having spent my professional life in Galveston I think it would be by far the best location on the list. When she was dry docked there for her last major overhaul it was a pleasure driving out of my way to work just to see her looming up in the morning sky.

I haven't been back to see her since I was a kid, almost 50 years ago. I do remember thinking that it was weird to have a concrete deck on a ship . . .

Britain has Warrior, fully restored. Full of major innovations, ahead of it's time, it was a battleship in the full sense of the word and nothing else could touch it. It was not a dreadnought configuration. Its restoration was amazing.

The US has the Olympia in Philadelphia. Dewey's flagship at Manila Bay. The Huascar is a great example of a early turret ship circa 1870 in Chile, or Peru. Another great restoration.

The Chinese actually built a full size replica of their predreadnought flagship from the 1894 Sino-Japanese War.

These are not all-big gun dreadnought but are battleship nonetheless

Texas is a great example of an early dreadnought and is an important historical asset.