Battleship Texas has reopened after divers repaired leaks

By Steve W. Stewart
via the kjas.com web site

USS Texas, last remaining US Navy battleship from WWI, is open again after leak repairs were completed.The Battleship Texas reopened on Saturday after divers last week were able to make underwater repairs to a major leak which filled her hull with water faster than her bilge pumps could evacuate it, and caused her to list 9 degrees to starboard.

Texas Parks & Wildlife, which oversees the 103-year-old warship, noted that leaks are common and occasionally they grow in size. In 1988, the last surviving dreadnought was wrestled from her berth at San Jacinto State Park in LaPorte and she was dry docked in Galveston where her hull underwent complete restoration.

Over the last 30 years, there has been much talk of creating a permanent dry display for the warship with her sitting slightly elevated over a concrete base, allowing visitors to actually walk underneath. The display would protect her from the corrosive brackish water that continuously rusts away her hull.

Plans were drawn up, but it has never gotten beyond that stage due to funding issues.

Commissioned in 1914, the Battleship Texas was at one time the most dangerous weapon in the world and served in both World War I and World War II, and she provided offshore bombardment during the D-Day invasion off the Normandy Coast on June 6th, 1944.

Read the whole article on the kjas.com web site.

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