Makeover for ‘Mighty Mo’
August 31st, 2009 | Historical Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Sailors aboard the carrier Nimitz viewed the battleship Missouri as their ship pulled into Pearl Harbor. The Missouri is due for a makeover in drydock this fall // Navy
Although it’s been decades since an Iowa-class battleship last fired its guns, the 21st century could become a second a golden age for the four beloved battle-wagons, each of them now spending their retirement as museum ships. The New Jersey is available for tours in Camden, N.J. Ownership of the Wisconsin will soon transfer from the U.S. government to the city of Norfolk, Va., which has said it will open more spaces of the ship for tours. And organizers are working on opening the Iowa to visitors in Valejo, Calif.
That leaves the Missouri — the ship that hosted the signing of the surrender of Japan — out at Pearl Harbor. After taking aboard some 400,000 visitors per year since the early 1990s, the ship needs a little work, and so it’s scheduled to move to a drydock in October:
The 65-year-old ship is in good shape, but it still needs to go to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for repairs because rust is protruding from peeling paint in areas and the teak wood deck is warped and bent in others.
The ship’s exterior is due to be sanded down and repainted in a $15 million overhaul paid for by memorial reserve funds and a Department of Defense grant.
“Rust never sleeps as they say,” said Michael Carr, the memorial’s president. “It’s a big job. It has to be done.”