This is dismaying news. The forensics of the leak would be interesting, because a FIFTEEN degree starboard list is not trivial. A Japanese
torpedo hit flooding
Hornet's engine room gave her only an 11 degree one.
Rabid Cougar, CalebMcCreary06 point out,
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I don't think there is a quick fix. She needs a new hull, including internal structure. How do you do that without getting here out of the water? There is a possibility of her breaking her back even if she was dry docked.
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Apparently her internal structure needs major repairs. If they towed her out of the channel, she would split in half. So those repairs have to be made in place. Until then. they cannot dry berth her.
I think an out of the box approach is the solution, see below, though not sure of the form would take. 20th C America used to display great ingenuity, If imagine we retain at least 75% of it now though it does seem to be fading where government is concerned.
That solution would be to find a way to make her present place permanent.
Don't `move' her at all. The challenge is find a way to cofferdam the river side and somehow get blocks under her before draining it. Then possibly fill the basin to waterline level with some kind of faux stone but polished surface to look like water, and do something like what the Japanese have the
Mikasa arranged as. It might also be the most cost-effective, and end up giving
Texas the most longevity.
One thing is for sure, if they do have to move her, I have no doubt the American minds that
did this can figure out a way to do it even better now. Look at what was involved moving
Oklahoma to dock---far bigger "leaks".
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/events/wwii-pac/pearlhbr/ph-ok9.htmThe battleship
Texas needs to be preserved as long as possible. Its not realized she is the only one that gives you any idea of what Pearl Harbor era battleship fitting and spaces were like. You want to see what
Arizona or
Oklahoma was like internally, you can't got to Iowa or
Wisconsin -- you have to go to
Texas. She is also one of the few pre-WW II designs of any kind around ---- a sad case is the effort up northeast to restore and save USS
Olympia (it still exists) -- none other than Dewey's flagship in the Spanish-American War. They are having trouble because today's generations have never or barely heard of the
Maine, or even the Spanish-American War naval battle of Manila or Cuba actions, or know that it is not the `Alamo' era war with Mexico. .
Edit: If you have ever seen the famous Doolittle raid photo passing over Yokosuka Navy Yard (one of few photos that came out of the raid and very, very commonly seen) you almost see where
Mikasa (Japanese flagship at Tsushima, Japan's `Trafalgar' victory) is. She is half fastened into one side of the quay there.