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LA PORTE The Battleship Texas Foundation (BTF), with their partners, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas Historical Commission, announce that the Battleship Texas will be departing San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site for repairs on August 31st. Repairs will be done at Gulf Copper & Manufacturing Corporations' Galveston Shipyard. Due to weather or day of delays, the departure is subject to potential postponement. A livestream video of the departure will be available for the public to view for free on the BTF YouTube channel and Facebook group page.

San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, parts of Independence Parkway, and the Lynchburg Ferry will be closed from the early morning hours on August 31st until the ship has moved past the Lynchburg Ferry. The ship can be viewed throughout her route over most of the day. Good viewing locations for the public include, subject to the local authority, Bayland Island, Texas City Dike, Seawolf Park, and Pier 21. The ship should pass the Texas City Dike and Seawolf Park around early to midafternoon and be in Galveston by mid to late afternoon.

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https://battleshiptexas.org/departure/

Get pics. Would love to see it.

Godspeed, Miss Texas!

Live feed from KHOU

Good sky cam stream of her coming into Galveston




ETA: It is so awesome seeing her underway

Didn't get good videos. Of course got busy at work about the time it was coming around the Texas City Dike. Could see it better with out zooming in on my phone. Followed it all day on Maritime Tracker.



ETA I could have climbed to higher vantage point but I was hot and tired and didn't feel it at 2:30 pm today

Great pictures

Quick point of Texas pride:

Those of us who grew up in southeast Texas know this ship well. I have pictures of me in the early 70s with my WW2 veteran grandfather on one of the anti-aircraft guns and 40+ years later my son and I did a Cub Scout "spend the night on the Texas" event where we got to sleep "below" and get an amazing tour of the ship. She is 110 years old. She was the one of the biggest and baddest in the world when she came out of the shipyard in 1912 and she fought in both World Wars. She was there for the North African landings and then fired over the troops landing at Normandy (including a certain Texan named Rudder as he and his 2nd Rangers were ascending Pointe du Hoc) and then bombarded Iwo Jima and Okinawa with her 10, 14" mains. She survived the hellacious kamikaze attacks at Okinawa where over 4,000 sailors were killed by suicidal Japanese and 20 American ships were sunk and 157 damaged. The Japanese lost 1,100 planes at Okinawa. The suicide raids went on for so long that Nimitz actually changed out the commanders (Halsey for Spruance) during the battle so they could rest from being in such a non-stop, high stress environment from March 23 to April 27.

My great Uncle, a native Houstonian, was on a ship at Okinawa and told us the story of the Kamikazes a year or so before he died. His battle station was a .30 caliber machine gun that he fired repeatedly throughout the 30+ days of the battle. He told us how he could see the goggles of the pilots sometimes and he specifically talked about the battleships firing so many rounds that the rifling of their barrels were worn smooth and they had to be changed out. I don't know if he was on the Texas. I don't think he was. But I don't think it matters. He was there nonetheless. He said half-heartedly "that's probably where I lost my hearing"

From Wikipedia: Texas was also a technological testbed: the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first US ship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers, the first US battleship to launch an aircraft, and one of the first US Navy ships to receive production radar.
Texas was the first US battleship to become a permanent museum ship, the first battleship declared to be a US National Historic Landmark, and is the only remaining World War I era dreadnought battleship. She is also one of the eight remaining ships and the only remaining capital ship to have served in both World Wars.

Oh wow, that last shot is AWESOME!

Holy crap, they already have her out of the water? I thought that would take days or even weeks.

A walk around Texas with overview of the condition of the lower hull. Included an explanation as to the large dents on the torpedo blisters.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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What is the purpose of a torpedo blister? Does it allow the ship to launch torpedoes or is it some sort of defensive counter-measure?

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Absorbs the blast from the torpedo without damaging the integrity of the hull. Usually contained bunker oil or sea water.