Two-Year Retrofit For Museum Ship Complete

All told, it was a far smoother journey back home for the USS Intrepid... than the trip out was, almost two years ago.

During a three-hour journey Thursday, the storied aircraft carrier -- now home to the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum -- made a slow, five-mile trip from a Staten Island pier, to its home berth on Manhattan's West Side. The grand ship docked at Pier 86 shortly after 2:00 pm EDT.

The New York Times reports about 400 people -- including 250 former crew members, and an NYPD band -- accompanied the 65-year-old ship on her journey home, following a 22-month rehabilitation effort.

The carrier's "Captain" for the trip was Bill White, president of the ISASM. He prefaced his calling on a slew of tugboats to move the ship away from its pier, with what the Times called a "fate-tempting pronouncement."

"I know one thing for sure: the mud is not going to get us today."

White referred to the efforts to move Intrepid away from Pier 86, 23 months before. As ANN reported, the first attempt to move the Intrepid away from its home berth of 24 years hit a snag on November 6, 2006, when the carrier's propellers became stuck in the mud after tugs had managed to coax the ship all of 15 feet.

Crews were more successful one month later... though even that effort was once again stymied, if only briefly, by the muddy pier. The ship spent most of its time since in Bayonne, NJ, having its hull sandblasted and repaired, and its exterior repainted. In that time, Pier 86 was also overhauled.

The Intrepid museum is scheduled to reopen November 8, with a formal ceremony to follow on Veterans Day. Over the next month, the carrier will see her fleet of aircraft -- including a retired Concorde SST -- returned to her deck, many also sporting new paint jobs.

FMI: www.intrepidmuseum.org/