Font ResizeAfter nearly 50 years of service, the longest battleship ever built no longer trains its guns on an unseen enemy but is used instead to teach the lessons of war as the USS New Jersey Museum and Memorial.
Volunteer tour guides like Bruce Powell slowly escort visitors up and over the wooden decks, down through the ship's gray innards and back out to the guns. The long guns, mounted on three turrets, are so massive that visitors wandering underneath them look like toys.
Powell, a docent on the New Jersey for two years, never served aboard "Big J."
"But I owe my life to the New Jersey," he said. And her big 16-inch guns and the compact-car size shells they fired.
While serving on the guided missile destroyer USS William H. Stanley off the Vietnam coast in 1968-69, Powell felt safe with the New Jersey's firepower at his back. Shells could be lobbed from 23 miles away.
"Having the New Jersey around was like having a 6-foot, 8-inch brother looking over your shoulder when you were a kid," Powell says. "No one wants to mess with you. And the New
Until then, the Stanley was a target of tiny Vietnamese ships. "Sooner or later, they were gonna get us," he says.
The most decorated of any U.S. battleship, the New Jersey won two battle stars for its work in Vietnam, four in the Korea conflict and nine stars in World War II.
Launched in 1942, exactly one year after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the New Jersey was the second of the Iowa-class battleships - the largest the United States built. The Iowa was launched in August 1942, followed by the New Jersey, Missouri and the Wisconsin.
All four, at 887 feet long, are longer than the famous German battleship Bismarck at 823 feet or Japan's Yamato at 862 feet. The Bismarck was sunk in 1941 before the United States entered World War II. The Yamato, wider and much heavier than the Iowa-class ships, was sunk while trying to protect Okinawa in April 1945.
But the latest U.S. battleships survived - for the most part undamaged - and continued to protect U.S. interests until the 1990s. All four are now decommissioned, replaced in the Navy's war machine with aircraft carriers. Airplanes, with their longer range, coupled with missiles and smart bombs, have taken over for the heavy bombing of the battleships.
Ironically, the Iowa, after which the class was named, sits alone in a San Francisco dock, while the others have become museums. The Missouri, on which Japan's surrender was accepted in August 1945, opened as a museum in 1999, just 1,000 yards away from the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The Wisconsin opened as a museum in Norfolk in 2001.
In 1989, an explosion ripped through one of the Iowa's gun turrets, killing 47 sailors. In all of its half-century of service, the New Jersey lost only one crewman in battle.
Powell, now a printer in Southhampton, N.J., leaks a little-known tidbit that makes the New Jersey the longest battleship ever built.
All four Iowa-class battleships were supposed to be 887 feet, 3 inches long. But because plating wasn't trimmed as was planned, a quarter inch or half inch here and there ended up adding 7 inches to the New Jersey's length, giving her the unofficial title of the longest battleship ever built.
The ship has been decommissioned four times now, but the ship's curator suggested it "would take an absolute miracle" to recommission the New Jersey for service for the fifth time. But, if necessary, the ship could be under way in 12 to 18 months.
So for now, the ship is open for visits and for parties, reunions, encampments and dinners. Even a few marriages have begun on the battleship. Visitors can wander on self-guided tours or learn from volunteers - mostly Navy veterans - on highly recommended guided tours. A firepower tour is the highest-priced option and spends more time in the weapons area.
"It's still here, it's still floating, and it can still do anything it did in the past," Powell said. "And I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for this ship."
USS NEW JERSEY TOURS
A self-guided tour is $12.50; a guided tour is $14; and a firepower tour, featuring weapons systems, is $16. Costs for children ages 6-11 are $8 for self-guided tour, $9 for a guided tour and $10 for firepower tour. Active military in uniform and USS New Jersey veterans are free. For details, visit http://battleshipnewjersey.org.
For details about other Camden events, visit http://www.camdenwaterfront.com.
To get to the USS New Jersey, take Interstate 76 through Philadelphia to the Walt Whitman Bridge and then to New Jersey. Exit at the first ramp to Interstate 676 north. Take I-676 to Mickle Boulevard to the Camden waterfront. It's about a two-hour drive and about 104 miles from York.
To get to Philadelphia's Independence Seaport Museum, Take I-95 (from North or South) to Exit No. 20 (formerly Exit No.16) marked variously: Historic Area, Penn's Landing, Columbus Boulevard, Washington Avenue. At the traffic light, turn left onto Columbus Boulevard (aka Delaware Avenue). About one mile up, you will see the Hyatt Regency Hotel on your right. Immediately after the hotel, at the light, there is a driveway under the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge. Turn right into the driveway, which will take you into the Penn's Landing Parking Lot.
SHIP FESTIVAL
The Tall Ships Challenge comes to the Philadelphia/Camden waterfront July 1 to 4, featuring 14 ships from the United States, England, Belgium, Canada and Poland. The four-day festival with a water theme will host ships from 72 to 213 feet long. Admission to the event is $5 for adults. For $10, adults can buy a pass that includes tours of the ships and a round-trip ride on the RiverLink Ferry, connecting Philadel- phia's Penn's Landing and the Camden Waterfront. The ships arrive in port on June 30. Ship tours are available noon to 4 p.m. July 1 to 4. For details, check http://www.phillyseaport.org.
