Can Battleship Texas win its war with time, corrosion?
Vessel may be given a berth on land to avoid it turning on its side
For decades, the USS Texas was one of the most feared battleships in the U.S. Navy. Armed with anti-aircraft guns during World War I, its crew kept German fleets from severing Allies’ supply lines.
It became the U.S. Atlantic Fleet’s flagship before World War II, then fired on Nazi defenses at Normandy before being transferred to the Pacific and providing gunfire support and anti-aircraft fire to the landings at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It was decommissioned in April 1948.
Now, the 103-year-old Battleship Texas is still at war with two of its most challenging adversaries to date — water and rust.
On Sunday, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials closed Battleship Texas after crews noticed around noon that the ship was off-kilter. A leak in the vessel allowed water to gush in, ripping a hole in the boat and causing it to tilt 8 degrees to one side.
Monday morning, emergency crews — including dive teams — patched a 6-inch by 8-inch hole in the boat. They found and patched another six leaks by 4:45 p.m. But water still poured out of the ship’s starboard side. And there are likely countless leaks yet to be found, said Justin Rhodes, director for the southeast region of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
There’s no word yet on when the memorial ship, stationed just north of La Porte, will reopen.
The ship’s weakening steel hull, it appears, is no match for salt water. Minor leaks on the boat are now the norm — more than 90 were patched in
in 2012, the last year water seeping inside the hull prompted a shutdown of the attraction. Additional leaks necessitated more patching less than a year ago.
“This story is about the fight between water and steel, and water always wins that fight,” said Bruce Bramlett, executive director of the Battleship Texas Foundation. “Hopefully, this is the wake-up call we need to stop spending money on patch jobs and water pumps and to focus on getting her out of the water.”
Officials said the current crisis places them in a race against time as water seeps into the ship faster than crews can pump it out. In the short term, officials are trying to keep the boat from tilting more. With each degree, another portion of the vessel that is normally above water is submerged, putting additional stress on the hull and causing more leaks.
In the long term, officials worry this is the ship’s final cry for help, as erosion further exhausts any remaining time crews have to save the boat from being entrenched in the Houston Ship Channel.
“The ship is speaking to us in her language, and she’s been telling us for years that she needs rescuing because she’s deteriorating,” Bramlett said.
Popular attraction
About 250,000 people visit the USS Texas every year. The ship, and the nearby San Jacinto Battleground historic site, encompass one of two significant historical sites in the southeast region of the state’s park and wildlife service, Rhodes said.
Most of Monday’s visitors — tourists from Japan, retirees getting in a morning bike ride, a visiting family from Tyler — did not know the ship was closed.
One, 64-year-old John Mccracken, was aware. He wanted to show his 5-year-old grandson the vessel while it still floated in the waters.
“It’s the pride of Texas,” Mccracken, a native Houstonian, said, as his grandson, Ryan Billett, ran along the dock by the ship.
Like many other visitors that day, Mccracken first saw the ship when he was in elementary school. He toured it with his Boy Scout troop. And he thinks the boat merits saving.
“No matter what the cost is, this ship needs to be preserved,” Mccracken said.
Except for two years in Galveston in the late 1990s, the USS Texas has been moored at the San Jacinto Battleground since 1948. It has been the site of countless family outings, elementary school field trips and history buff pilgrimages.
“Pretty much every fourthgrader in Southeast Texas came through the site,” Rhodes, with Texas Parks and Wildlife, said. He grew up three hours away, near Tyler, and still made the trip in elementary school.
Visitor Rick Stewart, 71, used to picnic by the ship with his family in the 1950s.
The current fear isn’t that the boat would sink — the bayou isn’t deep enough to submerge the ship completely. It’s that, if enough water pours in, the vessel would roll on its side.
It’s a scene that conjures memories of a similarly dire situation in 2012 that forced park officials to close the museum for three months as crews worked to patch more than 90 leaks and spent more than $2 million to save the vessel.
“You know, 2012 was a brutal year,” Bramlett said. “And it feels like it’s happening all over again.”
A battle plan for saving ship
This most recent leakage comes at a time when state and local officials are in the middle of devising a plan to save the vessel after years of financial setbacks and major leaks.
Bramlett leads the foundation set on making sure the USS Texas is preserved for future generations. But the century-old battleship is deteriorating, causing periodic leaks to occur with more frequency.
The ship caught the attention of Texas officials who have unsuccessfully pleaded with Congress to help with rehabilitation costs and turned to fundrasing, federal grants and state funding to support their efforts. The long-term plan is to take the ship out of the water.
But early efforts to repair the vessel and put it in dry berth, or an above-water setting, were put on hold after state park officials, who operate the vessel, deemed the undertaking too costly.
Bramlett said a new effort to get the ship out of the water is underway. In about eight to 10 weeks, two engineering companies will release assessments of what it will take to give the ship a dry berth.
Bramlett said he’s hoping for a $37 million to $48 million estimate this time.
To help finance costs, the Battleship Texas Foundation will launch a campaign to raise funds.
The goal is to control when the ship is in and out of the water. But lifting it is no easy task. Aside for the ship’s eroding hull, its internal structural supports are also weak.
For the last four years, state officials and the foundation have spent $35 million on repairs, replacing steel throughout the ship from the bow to the stern.
In 2010 the battleship underwent emergency repairs and pumping to prevent it from sinking. In 2012, millions were spent to pump water out of the ship and to patch a series of debilitating leaks.
In 2013 park crews discovered about four fist-sized leaks throughout the year. In 2014, parks and wildlife documents show the battleship underwent ultrasonic testing and corrosion analyses.
The engineering company that conducted the analyses concluded the battleship contained corroding “hot spots.” The study also determined that the ship’s protective coating system needs to be replaced if it is to remain berthed at the Battleship Basin.
Survived two world wars
Today, the USS Texas remains the last U.S. battleship of its kind that has seen two world wars.
The U.S. Navy commissioned USS Texas on March 12, 1914.
At one time, it was the most powerful weapon in the world, becoming the first U.S. battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns and the first to control gunfire with computers for increased firing accuracy.
The battleship’s final mission came in 1945, after the surrender of Japan. It carried soldiers stationed across the Pacific home from war.
For some, the ship inspired a sense of humility — a reminder of the sacrifice veterans made for the U.S.
It connected others to their roots. Kim Ash bury ,49, who manages the on-site gift shop keeps a black-and-white photo at her desk of her mother, standing in front of the boat months after it arrived at its current site. Her mother drove from Orange to see it.
“At the end of the day, this isn’t just Texas history. It’s also national history, and all eyes are on us to see how we preserve it,” Bramlett said. “Our current situation is the future situation for many other ships around the country.”