On May 26, 2012, the 79-year-old battleship Iowa is towed just beyond the Golden Gate Bridge and out into the ocean on its final voyage to Southern California and its permanent home as a floating museum on the San Pedro waterfront. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / May 26, 2012)
Update:
Two pretty good videos.
Somehow it seems kind of sad that this once great battleship leaves on her final voyage alone. It was less than a week ago that she was to leave as part of a parade of ships under the Golden Gate Bridge, but because of a little rough weather that she would have in her prime handled with ease had to have her good-bye party docked at her temporary home in the Port of Richmond. See: "Iowa to sail for new home" Vivian Ho, San Francisco Chronicle (Close enough - G). You can track the IOWA on her way to LA at www.pacificbattleship.com.
2 comments:
We couldn't build an Iowa again today. Not that we would want to, the day of the old battlewagons is gone, missiles have turned surface ships within fifteen miles of land into nothing more than targets to be sunk, and if there aren't missiles, it's cheaper and more accurate to drop GPS-guided bombs from an F-18. The Iowa would be nothing more than a cruise missile carrier if she were returned to service today, and we have cheaper ways of carrying cruise missiles.
Still sad to see the old battlewagon retired to museum duty, but (shrug). The march of progress...
- Badtux the Technology Penguin
Their day ended at Pearl Harbor. The battlewagon Admirals fought it to the last but WWII in the Pacific was an aircraft carrier war.
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