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Lights illuminate the USS New Jersey in Camden, N.J., Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. The battleship is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on March 21, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - Residents in the Philadelphia area are about to see a rare site - a battleship floating down the Delaware River.
The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. The vessel, guided by tugboats, will initially head to the Paulsboro Marine Terminal, where it will be balanced to prepare for dry docking, and will then go to the Navy Yard six days later.
The maintenance work is expected to take about two months to complete, officials said. Three major repair projects are planned, including repainting the ship's hull, fixing the anti-corrosion system underneath the ship and inspecting through-hull openings.
The battleship, which was built in the 1940s in Philadelphia, served for about 50 years before its retirement in February 1991. It has been a floating museum since 2001. The ship was built at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and was launched from there on Dec. 7, 1942, the first anniversary of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor.
The ship is the most decorated battleship in Navy history, earning distinction in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and conflicts in the Middle East, according to its website. The ship steamed more miles, fought in more battles and fired more shells in combat than any other battleship.
FILE - The Battleship USS New Jersey, shown in this undated photo, in mothballs for more than ten years, was commissioned at Philadelphia, Pa., naval yard March 26, 1968. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo, File )
FILE - The battleship USS New Jersey slides down the ways at the Philadelphia, Penn., Navy Yard on Dec. 7, 1942. In the foreground, Mrs. Charles Edison, wife of New Jersey's governor, waves a bouquet of flowers. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - U.S. Naval officers wave from the bow of the USS New Jersey BB-62 battleship as she is launched at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pa., on Dec. 7, 1942. Anchors and chains hang over the bow, which is higher than a five-story building. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - A trio of tugs, front, and other tugs on either side of the Battleship USS New Jersey, aid the ship along the East River near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, June 29, 1948, enroute to Bayonne, N.J., where the battleship is scheduled for retirement in reserve in the "mothball fleet". The Manhattan bridge is in the background. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano, File)
A person walks in Philadelphia across the Delaware River from the USS New Jersey in Camden, N.J., Tuesday, March 19, 2024. The battleship is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on March 21, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
FILE - The Battleship USS New Jersey is towed past the Delaware Memorial Bridge between New Jersey and Delaware on the Delaware River Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999. The New Jersey is returning to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where it was christened and launched in 1942. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File )
FILE - The USS New Jersey, one of the Navy's newest battleships, foreground, looks peaceful enough as it lies at anchor in a Western Pacific atoll as she waits with other warships for the signal to move out to strike the Japanese. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Newly recommissioned battleship USS New Jersey leaves Philadelphia, Pa., for sea trials, March 26, 1968. The 45,000-ton craft was in mothball fleet ten years. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo/Bill Ingraham, file)
FILE - Towed and shoved by tugs, the USS New Jersey, mothballed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard since 1962, is shifted from her moorings in the yard's mothball fleet, June 11, 1967, to a new pier where the Navy will do an $800,000 survey ordered by the Department of Defense. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo/Warren M. Winterbottom, File)
FILE - Officers and crew salute during hoisting of the colors at the ceremony recommissioning the USS New Jersey, 45,000-ton battleship, at Naval Supply Depot, Bayonne, N.J., Nov. 21, 1950. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work.(AP Photo/John Rooney, File )
FILE - The 52,000-ton Battleship USS New Jersey passes under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, Jan. 31, 1948, enroute to Gravesend Bay to unload her ammunition and then back to the Brooklyn Navy yard for stripping. The mighty vessel, one of the heaviest armed ships in the world, will eventually be berthed at Bayonne, N.J., on a deactivated basis. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo/Joe Caneva, File)
FILE - White foam swirls across the decks of the USS New Jersey, foreground, as a navy task force moves across the Pacific to attack Japanese targets, July 20, 1945, in a Western Pacific Atoll. The New Jersey is one of the Navy's newest battlewagons. The USS New Jersey is scheduled to move from its dock in Camden on Thursday, March 21, 2024, when it will head to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for extensive maintenance work. (AP Photo, File)
