[Elsiejay]

Trivia question(s): How often does one of these relic battlewagons require repainting below the waterline, and where can such drydocking be accomplished?

[tanknetter]

Trivia question(s): How often does one of these relic battlewagons require repainting below the waterline, and where can such drydocking be accomplished?

Question #1: it varies. The Missouri (BB-63) just had a drydocking with full hull repainting and she's been a museum ship for only about 15 years. Then there's Texas, which hasn't had a drydocking and bottom painting since the late 1980s. Massachusetts had a drydocking about 10 years ago and it'd been something like 40 years. North Carolina hasn't had a dry docking in over 50 years. Then take a look at the poor old Olympia.

The big issue is salt vs. fresh water environment and whether the ship is really sitting in water. North Carolina for instance is not only in fresh water, she's ALSO completely silted-in. I was on her this past Summer and there's maybe only 4 or 5 feet of water depth around the hull. Tops.

Question #2: lots of places, for an Iowa all it requires is a drydock that's available and is about 1000' long and 120' wide. Missouri was drydocked at Pearl Harbor, Massachusetts near Boston. Texas went into a floating drydock for her late-80's restoration. Intrepid (ok, an aircraft carrier, not a battleship) was recently drydocked for restoration/preservation work on Staten Island.

[tanknetter]

More ... here are some pictures of various battleships in drydock. Some of them are large, so I'm just going to link rather than embed.

Iowa in drydock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, VA

Texas in the floating drydock, Houston TX.

Texas, again, showing why it's best not to leave an old, steel-hulled ship sitting in salt water for decades without a drydocking.

Another of Texas, same as above.

Old pic of Wisconsin in a floating drydock