Battleship NJ Sets Return Date, With Celebration At Camden Waterfront

CAMDEN, NJ — Battleship New Jersey is coming home to a celebration.

USS New Jersey (BB-62), which recently left the Camden waterfront for the first time in decades, will return to the Camden Waterfront on June 20, the ship's nonprofit announced Thursday.

In March, the massive battleship was pulled to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for dry-docking — a process of removing a ship from the water to enable work below the waterline.

• Related article: WATCH: Battleship NJ Leaves Camden For 1st Time In Decades

The ship will leave Philadelphia on June 14 to dock in the Paulsboro Marine Terminal for six days of ballast work. Then she'll make the final leg of her trip back to her home port in Camden.

The Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial will hold a celebration for USS New Jersey's return to Camden. With a $10 donation, attendees can games, food and beverages, and live music along the battleship's pier and promenade (100 Clinton St., Camden).

Gates will open at 11 a.m., with the ship's arrival estimated for 1:20 p.m. that day. Donations directly benefit the museum and memorial. Children younger than 12 can attend for free. See event info.

Throughout a half-century of deployments, USS New Jersey earned 19 Battle and Campaign stars — the most of any surviving U.S. Navy ship. The 887-foot, 45,000-ton ship moved to her permanent berth on Sept. 23, 2001, in Camden, becoming one of the state's biggest attractions as a museum.

USS New Jersey — the size of a 90-story building — has been undergoing dry-docking for the first time since the early 1990s. Several tugboats pulled the battleship to her destination, as she is no longer operational.