The dignitaries, marching band, hundreds of spectators and, most importantly, a flotilla of tugboats were in place this morning, but after 24 years of sitting at the same Hudson River pier, inertia and mud won out when the time came for the U.S.S. Intrepid to move to a new home for the next two years.The move, designed to allow the ship and pier to undergo a $60-million refurbishing project, was postponed when seven tugboats straining for more than an hour were only able to shift the aircraft carrier museum 10 to 15 feet. And as soon as the tugs stopped pulling, the ship slid back to its original position.So much pulling force was applied to the carrier that one of its mooring line cleats began to pull free of the hull.Once away from Pier 86, the tugs were to take the Intrepid stern-first down the Hudson with stops at the World Trade Center site and Statue of Liberty before turning the carrier around and arriving 5 miles from her pier at a shipyard in Bayonne, N.J., for hull repairs in a drydock and then another trip to a pier in Staten Island for upgrading of exhibits and other improvements.Before the tugs took up the strain on their tow cables at 9:15 a.m., officials had been optimistic. "The people doing this have been doing this for 150 years. They've moved a thousand ships bigger than the Intrepid," museum president Bill White said. "A ship that survived five kamikaze attacks is going to make it five miles down river. She's been sitting in 17 feet of mud and now she's floating."White said the ship is supposed to be in Bayonne for six to eight months and then go to Staten Island. "She's going to get a whole new aircraft collection, new exhibits down below. She'll be a completely brand spanking new museum when she comes back. You can't fix a pier with an aircraft carrier attached to it."
Originally posted by rpm link Wow, You would have thought they would send divers down to make sure it was clear before they tried to move her. Hopefully they didn't do too much damage.
