USS Texas (BB-35) is in trouble.
The USS Texas, the battleship that served in during World War One and on both fronts during World War Two, is not in her toughest fight yet.
For the past few decades the Texas Parks & Wildlife staff and volunteers that take care of the century old dreadnought have been fighting against salt water, flooding and time to keep her above water. Recently things have taken a turn for the worse. In this case, when it rains, it pours.
“The Texas is as old as the Titanic.The Titanic launched a month before the Texas,” said Bruce Bramlett, executive director of the Battleship Texas Foundation. “She’s been in the water for over a century and water always wins that fight — sooner or later.”
Water poured in earlier this month, and officials say they can’t keep up with it
In order to keep the ship sustainable for years to come, officials say it’s going to take $40 million. That is why they’re sounding the alarm now.
This is not the first time the USS Texas has faced similar a crisis. But this time may need more then just another patch job, it needs to be put in dry dock. Unfortunately most of the funds and donations have only been able to handle buy time and not permanent solutions. Currently the dry dock is in phase two, but it is expected to be eighteen months before the plan is completed.
“You can’t move this ship anymore,” Bramlett said. “We don’t want to reach the point where it’s just you have to cut her up right where she sits and haul her out of here on barges.”
Battleship Texas officials say the state will have to put up $30 million just to scrap the ship, so they’re hoping they can raise the extra money necessary and get help from federal officials as well.
The “S” word has me concerned and worried. I have been to the USS Texas as kid and as a father with my son. I have the USS Texas in my fleet for World of Warships. I first heard of the ships from shooting at coke cans advertising the aluminium recycling drive to help restore her back in the 1980s. So the idea that may have to be scraped is a signification event. So I wanted to acknowledge original message that I saw on Facebook, the that inspired me to make this post.
If you want to help, please call the Governor’s (Greg Abbott) office at 512-463-2000 and tell them to appropriate the funds for a dry berth now. The state is going to spend $30M one way or the other (if scraping becomes necessary), so they might as well spend the money the right way. Call every day! Please share this with your other battleship fans…and CALL TODAY!
So that is the message, help spread the word around.
Save the battleship Texas.
Category: Politics
What a shame, I do hope they can raise the cash, and convince the Guv..
Instead of screwing around trying to patch the ship…they should build a cofferdam around it, pump out the water and fill the cofferdam with rock or dirt or maybe even concrete…viola! no more water problem and also now have stability, no more listing to starboard!!
Philly has a battleship from the Spanish American War – the Olympus.
Not in the best of shape.
It is actually the USS Olympia, and it is a cruiser, not a battleship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Olympia_(C-6)
Yep, went there many times as a kid.. had brass footprints on the bridge, I believe where Admiral Dewey said ” Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”.. If I’m wrong it was another famous quote, it’s been a few years since i was there lol
Dewey’s quote was, “Fire when ready, Gridley.”
“Damn the torpedoes” was Farragut at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1863.
“Damn the torpedoes” was Farragut running passed Fort Morgan and Gaines at the mouth of Mobile Bay
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farragut
Actually Farragut said “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton.”
Thought it was said to Jouett myself, but apparently that man commanded the ship lashed alongside the Hartford.
I walked the deck of the USS Texas some years ago on a weekend visit to the San Jacinto Monument while stationed at Ft. Hood. This was prior to the time in the late ’80s when the ship last went into drydock for a major overhaul.
As touched on by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department website posting, voters in the state approved in 2007 a $25 million ballot measure that would have funded a dry berth for the USS Texas. A project that was supposed to have been completed by just about now. An obvious question, why is the work not completed and how much, if any, of the $25 million is still left after all the engineering studies, environmental impact reports, and leak plugging?
To get a graphic idea of what might be involved with the dry berth, it’s useful to do a Google Map query for the current site of the ship, which is tucked in a small inlet off the Buffalo Bayou channel. Converting that inlet to a dry berth is probably the only way to keep the Texas from falling apart anymore than it already is. Anything else is a band-aid.
The Japanese have dry-berthed the predreadnought battleship HIMS Mikasa, which was Togo’s flagship at Tsushima (and was built by the Brits, incidentally). Though it doesn’t quite look the same to see a ship sitting in concrete, it does guarantee that she’ll be kept permanently. If that’s what the Texas needs, then by God, get it done!
I’ve toured the HIJMS Mikasa while I was stationed in Yokosuka. She still had the dents in her armor from Tsushima – an awesome piece of history!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Mikasa
That brought back an old memory…I had my Div O reenlist me on the HIJMS Mikasa when we pulled into Yokosuka back in 1994. I picked that location because it was a unique piece of history.
When the Alabama needed hull work, she was cofferdammed in place to save on drydock fees. Last I heard, the engineers said the Texas’s frame will still hold her up if she’s out of the water, so could that be a viable alternative? Even without her service record, she’s the only dreadnought battleship left in existence (the closest thing elsewhere is the Greek dreadnought cruiser Giorgios Averoff). She’s literally priceless. $40 million is barely a rounding error in the Texas state budget, much less the federal one.
I am good with pictures and 3D images of the USS Texas.
No need to expend more tax money. Now, if private donors get to collect the amount of money necessary to save this beautiful piece of history, then I am all for it. As long as it is volunteer.
Free market capitalism, small government and our constitutional freedoms.
Cancel Bradley Manning’s dickectomy and reallocate the funds. See? Already off to a great start!
Most of the rest of aren’t though. Texas claimed to set aside the money to fix this problem and didn’t so they need to shit it now and actually do what is supposed to be done.
Some of the revenues from the ship can be turned back over to the State.
Not being Navy had to read up on the history of the ship. Amazing stuff.
Would agree with those who opine that she should be saved, but also agree that being permanently displayed out of the water is a much better alternative to letting her rot in the water. Can that be done where she is now docked? Not necessarily to save money, but she is a ship and deserves to stay very near the sea.
I’m afraid the enthusiasm for these historical monuments wanes as the last of our greatest generation passes on. And that is a shame.
Just think if liberals card one bit about the nation’s history rather than trying to destroy it and funding political efforts to undermine local elections it could have easily been paid in full.
I’d bet some extreme liberal types are trying to find reasons why the Texas is racist and did evil things so they can push to scrap it and erase more history of War.
My late Father-In-Law served on the Big T (46-47) as part of her inactivation crew at the Norfolk Naval Yard.
I guess it was sorta good he was on shore duty as Mrs. Claw was born at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital during the time.
It’s now been 30 years since he passed, maybe the time for the BB-35 to pass has also come.
People don’t understand how much effort it takes to maintain anything waterborne, much more so waterborne in seawater. Active ships need constant care for corrosion control and other things. Ask me sometime about putting an emergency soft patch on a 14″ overboard discharge pipe located 20′ under the waterline of nuclear-powered cruiser and leaking lots of water into the people tank while underway. You can’t do something, wait 20 or 30 years, and do something again. The Olympia is an example of this as is the Clamagore among others. The situation with the Texas is a shame but the situation was created by well-meaning folks who didn’t look very far ahead. It is far better to tow these old ships out and sink ’em with some sort of ceremony rather than let ’em rot till you’ve gotta cut ’em up piece by piece near the shore in view of everyone.
The long-term plan is to have her permanently dry-berthed, as the Japanese have done with the Mikasa. The question is why, after the state of Texas allocated $25 million ten years ago to get it done, is her keel still wet?
I have always favored the idea of either towing them out and sinking them for artificial reefs, or sending them back to the foundries so the steel can become part of a modern ship. To see a once proud ship listing and rotting at anchor is just sad.
Another Alternative is to make a museum for her and take items from her and display them. The rest can be recycled into a new ship.