Battleship Texas is closed until further notice

[Coiled]

June 11, 2017 - Battleship Texas is closed until further notice.

http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/battleship-texas

It developed some more leaks and is listing @ 8deg. to starboard. Check the TPWD site before heading that way.

 

[Younggun]

Damn, hope they get it patched up again.

Was the highlight of my only trip to Houston.


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[Maverick44]

I saw it a few years ago, and I absolutely loved exploring it. I hope the damage isn't too severe.

 

[Dawico]

Saw it years ago.

My brother asked what they were selling tickets for (admission ). I told him they were raffling it off.

 

[Kar98]

Emergency repairs made after leak nearly sinks Battleship Texas

 

[tsugsr]

I was on it when they closed it yesterday. We went down for the Metallica show and decided to go check it and the San Jacinto monument out.

Really neat ship! Once they open it back up, id recommend checking it out.


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[TRIXXTERR]

I thought they, land locked that a couple years ago? Must have been a different battleship.

 

[TRIXXTERR]

Double tap, my bad..

 

[jrbfishn]

Been on it several times. Be a shame to lose it. Be nice if they could dry-dock it. At least long enough to be fixed.

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[Antares]

They mentioned the leak several months ago and said that the ship had to be dry docked to fix the problem. But they couldn't move the Texas and there wasn't a drydock that could take her. I loved the battleship and my grandkids had a blast climbing through it. I hope it can be fixed permanently. Hell I know how hard it is to fix old things.

 

[Younggun]

I believe there was a plan to have it permanently dry docked with walkways around it but funding fell short.


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[45tex]

Love that big ole boat. Worked for the Port Authority last time they floated it for repairs. Even then she traveled up the ship channel proudly. It would take so little to build a dam and get her permanently out of the water. She does not float now anyway. A moat like the Queen Mary has could be built to give the impression of her being in the water. So much of her lower decks are so rusted they can't be shown to the public ever. There is not another Dreadnought left anywhere in the world. The Texas is world history.
Years ago I spent the worst night ever along with my boys on a Boy Scout sleep over on board. I gained a new respect for the men that served aboard her. I doubt the bunk area ever got below 90' and the bugs were feasting on us all.

 

[Mikewood]

The problem is the age of the ship and the severity of the damage. To start she has a very heavy armor belt, turrets and magazines. Below that the plate and hull was very thin and she now has weakened and corroded lower decks and engine supports as a result of significant flooding. Her engines are massive and she is no longer able to support their weight. Funding is there to save her but the question is how to lift her and put her in a permanent birth without tearing her in pieces or ripping the engines out. A giant cradle has been considered but at this time she is still stuck in the mud because that is the only thing holding her together. You would think it could be easy enough to enclose her berth in concrete and then pump out all the seawater but that has a ton of problems also.

She may be doomed as is the Lexington in Corpus.


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[Maverick44]

Love that big ole boat. Worked for the Port Authority last time they floated it for repairs. Even then she traveled up the ship channel proudly. It would take so little to build a dam and get her permanently out of the water. She does not float now anyway. A moat like the Queen Mary has could be built to give the impression of her being in the water. So much of her lower decks are so rusted they can't be shown to the public ever. There is not another Dreadnought left anywhere in the world. The Texas is world history.
Years ago I spent the worst night ever along with my boys on a Boy Scout sleep over on board. I gained a new respect for the men that served aboard her. I doubt the bunk area ever got below 90' and the bugs were feasting on us all.

From what I remember from my trip, the brig and the area surrounding it could best be described as hell on Earth.

 

[stdreb27]

The problem is the age of the ship and the severity of the damage. To start she has a very heavy armor belt, turrets and magazines. Below that the plate and hull was very thin and she now has weakened and corroded lower decks and engine supports as a result of significant flooding. Her engines are massive and she is no longer able to support their weight. Funding is there to save her but the question is how to lift her and put her in a permanent birth without tearing her in pieces or ripping the engines out. A giant cradle has been considered but at this time she is still stuck in the mud because that is the only thing holding her together. You would think it could be easy enough to enclose her berth in concrete and then pump out all the seawater but that has a ton of problems also.

She may be doomed as is the Lexington in Corpus.


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Why is the lex doomed?


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[easy rider]

Unfortunately it's not as simple as putting a bandaid on her. The hull is probably so deteriorated that it may be impossible to put it on blocks of a drydock. It will probably take tens of millions to repair her enough to save her.

 

[karlac]

Hope they can get it fixed ... one of my fondest memories of childhood was a visit to the San Jacinto Monument and the Battleship Texas well before we moved to Texas. I was convinced Texas had to be something special since it took so long to get there from the middle of S Louisiana, and had a big honkin' boat named after it ... I was right, and still am.

 

[LOCKHART]

Seems they should have dry docked it when they first put it up on display. Water and steel don't go together. Same thing is probably gonna happen to that old carrier in Corpus.

 

[easy rider]

Ships in service have to be drydocked every few years to make repairs to the hull and repainting. Of course in service ships will wear quicker than stationary ships, but the chemicals in primers and marine paint needed to fight erosion still break down over time.

In 2003 I worked on the USS John F. Kennedy in Mayport, Fl. for 10 months. They at first wanted to decommission it, but politics, meaning many of the Kennedys objected. For 10 years the ship sat and was nothing more then a training ship, so we worked around the clock replacing miles of piping and other structural components trying to get her sea worthy. When they finally pulled her out of 10 feet of silt she still wasn't able to move on her own. They ended up pulling her to Norfolk and putting her in drydock. The damage they found was so enormous that it was then decided it would be too expensive and time consuming to make her sea worthy.

Now I'm not saying the USS Texas can't be saved, just trying to put in context the undertaking it may take.

 

[45tex]

Last time they dry docked the Texas it took months of welding before she could even float. They welded great quantities of steel to her keel then. The idea was that she would have to be a land display in the future. No intent was existed for her to ever float again. I want to say most of the engines and equipment were removed during the dry dock. Below the waterline I understand she is just a patchwork of plating. Once she was back in the water she sat in Greens Bayou for many more months while she was repaired from the inside. They knew this was going to happen and it was planned for. That's one reason those four ugly hunks of tube were welded to her side. She was not intended to move again.
Don't count the Grey Ghost out. Again there is no other of her type anywhere in the world. Its just time to bring her out of that filthy water. There are portions that have yet to be opened from her WWII days. Lots of history lies dormant below her decks. The state will have to get its act together and Uncle Sam should chip in too. The Texas is too important to abandon. Saying that I know Houston is all about tearing down the old stuff for no reason.
Astroworld was destroyed because the land was so valuable and that land sits idle today.