Our battleship is headed for drydock.

She fought in World War Two….in Korea…and in the first Gulf War. Now the USS Missouri battles rust and corrosion, moored in Pearl Harbor as part of the Arizona Memorial. The last time the Missouri was in dry dock was in 1992 as the government turned her over to the USS Missouri Memorial Association.

Association President Michael Carr says the paint will be sandblasted away from the Missouri, top to bottom and she’ll get a new coat of Navy gyre . He says there are places in the outer hull are so rusty he could stick his arm trough them. They are not endangering the ship. They’re above the water line. The ship also has an armored inner hull., But Carr says some segments as large as twenty by forty feet will be removed and replaced.

Other work will be done while the Missouri is in drydock or is ongoing. The association has contracted to install a sophisticated humidity control system inside, will install a modern restroom–it has no restrooms for visitors–and work will continue on replacement of every plank of the teak deck.

The Missouri heads to Drydock 4 of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in September, after the ceremony commemorating the end of World War Two on the Missouri’s teak deck.

 

Upload BP’s interview with Michael Carr (6:32)