Battleship NJ To Leave Camden Next Month For Maintenance

CAMDEN, NJ — A date has been set for the most-decorated battleship in national history to leave the Camden waterfront for the first time in decades.

The Battleship New Jersey will move down the river for extensive maintenance work on March 21, organizers announced Thursday. Tugboats will drag the ship to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for dry-docking — a process of removing a ship from the water to enable work below the waterline.

The ship — built in 1939 and officially named USS New Jersey (BB-62) — will depart at 12:10 p.m. March 21. A free departure celebration will begin at 11 a.m. at the pier in Camden. View event info.

Throughout a half-century of deployments, USS New Jersey earned 19 Battle and Campaign stars — the most of any surviving Navy ship. The 887-foot ship moved to her permanent berth on Sept. 23, 2001, in Camden, becoming one of the state's biggest attractions as a museum.

During dry-docking, USS New Jersey will get a paint job and have thousands of parts replaced, some of which will come from the original blueprints. Even though the Navy Yard is only 6 miles away, transporting the non-operational ship is a massive undertaking.

Several tug boats, from McAllister Towing, will guide the ship to Dry Dock #3 at the naval yard, where the ship was built. The ship will need to go under the Walt Whitman Bridge.

Numerous issues could arise during the voyage, so a limited number of people will be on the battleship during towing.

The work is estimated to take eight weeks.

First launched in 1942, USS New Jersey was used in conflicts including World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The ship last entered battle from 1983-84 for U.S. operations in the Lebanese Civil War and decommissioned for a fourth and final time in 1991.

Eight years later, Congress allowed the ship to become a museum.

The ship has been dry-docked at least three times prior — most recently from 1990-91.

Battleship New Jersey is selling tickets for guided dry-dock tours at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, beginning April 6.