$60,000,000 Wasted? USS Texas Might Soon Be the Orphan Battleship

The USS Texas (BB-35), a storied battleship that served in both World Wars, faces an uncertain future. Despite a recent $60 million overhaul, it has no permanent home.

What You Need to Know: The USS Texas (BB-35), a storied battleship that served in both World Wars, faces an uncertain future. Despite a recent $60 million overhaul, it has no permanent home.

-The battleship’s former berth at the San Jacinto battleground is no longer viable, while options like Seawolf Park and Corpus Christi have been ruled out due to logistical and financial constraints.

-Galveston, where Texas was repaired, also wants the ship gone, citing concerns over obstructed waterfront views. As a unique piece of naval history, the USS Texas deserves a permanent location that respects its role in American heritage.

USS Texas Battles to Find a Permanent Home After Major Restoration

An Orphan In Its Land: The Sad Fate of the USS Texas – The Second World War may be long over, but one of its most iconic battleships, the USS Texas (BB-35) is fighting its most important campaign in its long, storied life. That is the fight for this legendary steel beast to find a permanent home.

After $60 million, 300,000 man-hour, stem-to-stern refurbishment of the great ship, the USS Texas is ready to return to duty, the service of showcasing itself for throngs of curious onlookers seeking a greater understanding of the role this warship played in our national history, and it is being prevented from returning to the San Jacinto battleground where she was once housed.

Peter Suciu explained in these pages that, “bureaucratic and financial challenges prevent its return,” to San Jacinto. Suciu further states that, “Proposals to move the ship to Seawolf Park or Corpus Christi have been scuttled over logistical and funding issues.”

Its present temporary home in Galveston, where the extensive repairs took place, wants the storied warship gone.

So, one of the greatest embodiments of twentieth-century U.S. naval power is made to float aimlessly in the friendly, albeit uncertain, waters of an increasingly ambivalent Texas, the state not the ship.

The History

The USS Texas is a unique boat. Sure, there are a few other battleships still around, such as the USS North Carolina. But Texas is a rarity.

You see, the USS Texas has the virtue of being the only battleship in existence to have seen action in both world wars that defined the twentieth century and shaped the tumultuous century we live in today.

Texas was launched in 1912, the same year that the Titanic sank and just two years before the outbreak of the Great War.

USS Texas in New York Harbor, 1918. After the Armistice in World War I, the USS Texas returned to the U.S. in late 1918, and, after escorting U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference for the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, underwent an overhaul and resumed her duties with the Atlantic Fleet. (Photo Credit: Schenectady Museum / Hall of Electrical History Foundation / CORBIS / Getty Images)

A Victim of Yuppie Culture & NIMBY

The yuppies who live in the seaside parts of Galveston, Tex., want the battleship gone. Should the original plans to house the Texas in the port at Galveston be realized, then, multiple local businesses will have their waterfront views obstructed. Restaurants do not want to have their water views impeded by the masts and gray barrels of the Texas.

It’s quite embarrassing. 

Read the entire article on The National Interest website.
External Web Site Notice: This page contains information directly presented from an external source. The terms and conditions of this page may not be the same as those of this website. Click here to read the full disclaimer notice for external web sites. Thank you.