Hier mal ein Artikel aus der New York Daily News:
Nov 6, 3:35 PM EST
Mudslinging: Intrepid mission scrubbed after ship gets stuck
By PAT MILTON
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The USS Intrepid got stuck in the thick mud of the Hudson River on Monday as a fleet of tugboats furiously pulled the historic aircraft carrier from its pier, scuttling a carefully laid mission to move the floating military museum for $60 million in repairs.
"We had 40 government - federal, state and local - agencies working with us. We had the sun, the moon and the stars in alignment, and it was just a very disappointing day for us," said Intrepid President Bill White.
Jeffrey McAllister, the lead tugboat pilot, said his firm's six tugs did everything they could, pulling the Intrepid with a combined 30,000-horsepower force, but mud built up as the ship shifted backward. He said the tugs were able to move the aircraft carrier as much as 15 feet before it became firmly entrenched in the mud.
"We had a lot of horsepower. The tide was right. The weather was right. But Mother Nature was against us," McAllister said.
The carrier's move involved meticulous preparation worthy of its first departure for Pacific war combat in 1943.
The mission was timed to take advantage of yearly high tide Monday morning so the tugs could pull the engineless behemoth out of the slip where it has rested in up to 17 feet of mud for the last 24 years. Removal of 600 tons of water from the Intrepid's ballast tanks gave the ship added buoyancy, and dredges removed 15,000 cubic yards of mud to create a channel from dockside to deeper water.
But in the end, the mud won. McAllister said the ship was snagged partly by its four propellers, which protrude from under the stern and are each about 15 feet in diameter.
White said officials weren't sure when or even whether they would try to move the Intrepid again, or whether they might try instead to refurbish the ship in its Manhattan berth. The next high tide is Dec. 6, but it will be about a foot lower than Monday's, he said.
Once out in the Hudson's main channel, the tugs were to take the Intrepid on a stern-first, five-mile trek down river to a shipyard at Bayonne, N.J., past the World Trade Center site, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, for the restoration and repairs. It was to return to New York City in 18 to 24 months.
Elected officials and dozens of former crew members attended a send-off ceremony. Helicopters flew overhead; New York Police Department blue-and-white power boats, two Fire Department boats and a Coast Guard cutter were on hand to accompany the aircraft carrier.
Two former mayors, Edward Koch and David Dinkins, cast off the final mooring lines at the order of 80-year-old retired Rear Adm. J. Lloyd "Doc" Abbot Jr., who served two years as Intrepid's skipper in 1960-62 and was named honorary commander for the day.
"It was the best job I ever had," Abbot said, standing once again on the ship's deck. "Intrepid had a soul of her own. How can a hunk of iron have a soul, you may ask. But I loved her. She kept me safe and at times I kept her safe."
The Intrepid serves as a living memorial to the armed services, a tourist attraction that draws hundreds of thousands people a year and, if the need arises, will become as an emergency operation center for city and federal authorities. The FBI used it as an operation center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The carrier's refurbishment is to include opening up more interior spaces to the public, upgrading its exhibits and a bow-to-stern paint job in naval haze-gray. Its pier will also be completely rebuilt in the Intrepid's absence.
The ship's collection of aircraft has been shrink-wrapped in plastic cocoons to protect it from the elements during the hiatus in New Jersey. The British Airways Concorde supersonic jetliner that has been part of the Intrepid museum exhibit since 2004 will be temporarily relocated outside a new recreational center at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
The Intrepid, launched in 1943, is one of four Essex-class carriers still afloat six decades after spearheading the naval defeat of Japan in the Pacific. It served during World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and as a recovery ship for NASA astronauts - losing 270 crewmen in battle.
Doomed to the scrap heap, it was purchased in 1981 by real estate developer Zachary Fisher, who realized his dream of turning the ship into the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum a year later. It has become one of New York's major tourist attractions, drawing some 700,000 visitors a year.
Just before the ceremony, officials expressed optimism about being able to move the aircraft carrier.
"The people doing this have moved a thousand ships bigger than the Intrepid," White said earlier. "A ship that survived five kamikaze attacks is going to make it five miles down river."
Officials at the Intrepid said the cost for Monday's failed mission was $250,000.
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Associated Press Writer Richard Pyle contributed to this report.
Kurzfassung auf deutsch:
Der Museumsträger USS
Intrepid sollte von sechs Schleppern von seinem Liegeplatz den Hudson River entlang zu einer Werft transportiert werden. Dort soll das Schiff bis Herbst 2008 (Laut Museums-Webseite - damit leider von meiner USA-Liste für 2007 gestrichen...
) überholt werden.
Allerdings ist der Transport schon im Ansatz im Schlick des Hudson Rivers stecken geblieben, der sich in vielen Jahren unter dem Rumpf angesammelt hat.
Diese fehlgeschlagene Aktion hat mal eben 250.000$ gekostet. Wer den Haushaltsplan für solch ein Museumsschiff kennt, weiß, wie schnell sowas leider auch mal das Aus bedeuten kann.
Hoffentlich in diesem Fall nicht.
Wer also dem Museumsschiff helfen will: Tauchausrüstung und Schaufel einpacken und ab nach New York zum Matsch schaufeln.
Spontan würde mir da einer einfallen...
