USS IOWA Updates

On October 28th, 2011 the USS Iowa was flawlessly towed and safely arrived in the Port of Richmond, California. A lifetime experience is now available to visitors as the “Battleship of Presidents” is open to the public during its stay, while it is being refurbished for its final mission.

It all began with the announcement, on September 6, of the ship award to Pacific Battleship Center that a whirlwind of activity began on the IOWA at her temporary home of 10 years in Suisun bay. Among the activities during this time was the recovery of one of her anchors, preparation of mooring lines, establishment of watertight boundaries and multiple inspections by the Navy, Coast Guard, Insurance and Marine Surveyors. The team also accomplished the addition of 300 tons of fresh water ballast in forward tanks in order to bring her stern higher out of the water, thus allowing her to clear the shoal on her path out of the anchorage. 

The ensuing weeks have been filled with a broad variety of efforts including fire and flood alarm system upgrades, clearing the deck of debris and removal of loose hull fittings.  Another significant effort and continues, has been the removal of teak deck “margin” boards which are being removed in order to access the corrosion on the deckhouse/deck interface. (These are the pieces directly adjacent to the deckhouse.) Our goal is to remove some 3500 lineal feet on the main, 01, 02 and 04 decks before blasting and painting of the superstructure commences in the coming months.

Work in the coming weeks will see the continuance of margin board removal along with additional preparation for painting of the hull and superstructure by Bay Area contractors. We also plan on re-stepping the mainmast, which has resided on her helicopter deck since her transit from the east coast.

Volunteers are needed! Come down and help us restore IOWA