USS Intrepid Museum needs more $$ before returning to NYC..

[Warbirdnerd]

USS Intrepid, war museum, faces new peril _ money
By RICHARD PYLE – 3 days ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Once it was Japanese torpedoes and kamikaze suicide planes. Then, the threat of the wrecking ball. Now, it's money — or the lack of it — that could imperil the future of the USS Intrepid.

Nineteen months after tugboats pried it from the mud at its Hudson River pier and towed it away for a much-needed renovation, the legendary World War II aircraft carrier needs a sizable infusion of cash to resume its postwar career as a floating military museum.

If all goes according to plan, the ship will be brought back in early October and formally reopened to the public on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

That depends on finding the wherewithal to complete a job that was first estimated at $65 to $70 million and is now expected to cost $110 million, said Bill White, president of the USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Of that total, $66 million is for rebuilding its city-owned pier, and the rest for the museum ship.

In a move he said he never expected would be necessary, White has put the Intrepid's $15 million endowment up as collateral to cover expenses. That money would be repaid, he said. He also asked the federal government to pony up more money for costs of returning the ship, including $9 million to $12 million for dredging a trench for it to rest in.

White insisted, however, that both monetary goals and the November deadline will be met.

"We are going to get this done, come hell or high water — hopefully, the latter," he said.

Intrepid, one of the Navy's fabled Essex-class carriers widely credited with winning the Pacific war, was launched in 1943 and fought in every major battle prior to Japan's surrender in 1945. It repeatedly sustained heavy damage, was patched up and sent back into the fray. Intrepid served in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was twice a recovery ship for Mercury astronauts before being retired in 1974.

Among five WWII carriers serving today as floating museums, none has a combat record to match the ship that survived five kamikaze attacks and lost 270 crew members.

"We want people to understand that while $110 million is a lot of money, it is difficult to put a price on honoring our nation's heroes," said White, a former restaurateur who has raised millions for the Intrepid museum and its related charitable enterprises serving families of dead and wounded service members.

"The idea that this ship could survive all that it did in wartime and 60 years later face a new threat to its existence would be unacceptable. To be without USS Intrepid is unimaginable and that is never going to happen," he said.

Once ensconced at its Hudson River pier in 1981, the old warship needed time to gain public acceptance. Except for the annual Fleet Week visitation — ongoing this week — the U.S. Navy rarely shows up in New York City and is largely ignored when it does. Over time, both the Intrepid and its city-owned pier deteriorated so badly that in November 2006, the ship was ingloriously dragged out of the mud and towed to New Jersey for the two-year overhaul.

At every stage, the work has cost more than had been anticipated. Just pulling the ship out of 17 feet of mud and bringing it back will cost some $19 million, nearly four times the original estimate, White said. That includes dredging the new trench where the ship will rest as the mud again embraces and protects the aging hull.

The pier itself had to be replaced with a new 700-foot structure on pilings sunk into the harbor bed, said Noreen Doyle, a vice president of the Hudson River Park Trust, a nonprofit that manages the city-owned shoreline park extending along Manhattan's west side.

The total cost of the pier, in a complicated mix of public funds and money raised by the Intrepid, will be about $66 million, well above an original estimate of some $38 million.

The Intrepid now sits at a former Navy pier on Staten Island, looking not all that much better than when real estate tycoon Zachary Fisher ransomed it from a Philadelphia scrapyard in 1979 and turned into one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.

While its 900-foot hull has been repaired and repainted Navy gray, the interior is a jumbled work in progress, as workers open up crew quarters and other spaces not previously accessible to the public and create new exhibits on the hangar deck. When the $10 million installation is complete, interactive digital displays will be side by side with real WWII aircraft and a Soviet-built MiG-21 in an open space running the length of the ship.

The emphasis, along with tourism, will be on education, in keeping with K-12 science and history programs that the museum already sponsors in city schools, drawing some 50,000 students a year, says Intrepid director Susan Marenoff.

The ship's collection of some three dozen aircraft — some of them rare — has undergone refurbishment elsewhere, and efforts are under way to trace each one's history and find pilots who flew them to get their stories on record.

Found it here:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3DR ... gD90S54AG0

[Jack Cook]

Geez that alot of $$$$

Intrepid, was launched in 1943 and fought in every major battle prior to Japan's surrender in 1945

The Intrepid was at Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Santa Cruz ect ect

Among five WWII carriers serving today as floating museums, none has a combat record to match the ship

I'm sorry but Yorktown, Hornet & Lexington were in the fight longer!

[mustangdriver]

That may be true, but the Intrepid is worth the money to save.

[Jack Cook]

Yeah but what could you do with $110 million

[Forgotten Field]

65M for a pier, that was already in existence? Boss Tweed would be proud of his descendants...

[Steve S]

Seems to me that if this is such a big draw for NYC and the Pier is a NYC pier they shoudl be stepping a bit more here as well.

[Jack Cook]

65M for a pier, that was already in existence? Boss Tweed would be proud of his descendants...

How about just anchoring in out in the river and use COD flights and liberty boats

[wls3]

Could be worse. They could have decided to put Intrepid in Camden NJ
where some rocket scientist decided to put the Battleship New Jersey.

Camden wrestled the country's most crime ridden city award away
from Detroit.

A couple pictures of Intrepid during her move from Pier 86 to Staten Island in 2006.

[Matt Gunsch]

I thought the Intrepids nickname in WWII was the Dry I, because she spent so much time in drydock

[mustangdriver]

Why would you guys want to see a great complex built for this historic ship? $110 million. Well you can buy a ball team for that, or save a WWII aircraft carrier.

[gary1954]

65M for a pier, that was already in existence? Boss Tweed would be proud of his descendants...

How about just anchoring in out in the river and use COD flights and liberty boats

Jack, that is a novel approach to a costly sitchee-ation...and could be fun for mom and dad to ride with the kiddies on a launch to a floating museum...Sounds great to me, plus, look at the security. Get to look at "sailing" and Aviation

[Jack Cook]

Theliberty boats were fun but the COD truly sucked
The hind end smell like a combo of JP, sweat, vomit and fear

[SPANNERmkV]

Wish they could save USS Intrepid, get her away from the NY/NJ Port Authority and park her next to the USS Battleship Texas!

First time I saw the Intrepid was on a foggy night from a cab in Dec. of 2001.
WTC was still smoking and I didn't know she was a Museum.
I thought the Navy had brought in some extra muscle to guard the homefront.

Subsequently went and visited her and luck of the draw, they had some cable television Arm-Wrestling event being taped on the Hangar deck.
While it honestly was a freakshow it wasn't SOOO bad, because all the meatheads brought their cute little girlfriends to war with them.

Save the Intrepid before she goes the way of the USS Enterprise.

[Nathan]

Save the Intrepid before she goes the way of the USS Enterprise

Thats one ship that shoulda been saved!

$110?! Wow does it really need all that to be in descent shape?

[Misterg97]

Bill,

Thanks for the great pics .... I always thought they should have berthed her at Liberty State Park where many could have taken advantage without going into the City.

When I first started working in NY, ('63) the Jersey Central ended at the old terminal near Liberty Park and we then took a ferry across to lower Liberty St. ... what a great way to go to work ...

Having spent close to 23 years working on the 37th floor of 120 B'wy, I watched the World Trade Center being built from shovel one to completion. When the change went to Path, our trains came in to the lower WTC.

A year and a half ago, we moved from NJ to Ohio ...

Again, thanks fro bringing back some great memories.