![]() “We spent years and years pumping water and now we’re putting it back on,” Gregory said. The foam makes the ship more buoyant, but also needs counterbalance with some water that will help the center sit lower in the water where it will have better balance. “We injected foam into the blister tanks,” Gregory said, referring to the space in the ship designed to absorb the force and blast of an enemy torpedo. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Officials plan to move the battleship on Aug. Tomas Damian hooks up a large chain to be carried aboard as Battleship Texas is prepared for its move to a Galveston dry dock on Aug. Gregory said getting that intake to 20 or so gallons per minute was the first step in readying the ship for its journey. At times the ship took on 2,000 gallons of water per minute, simply sitting there. A battalion of bilge pumps pushed water out as more came in. OUT OF CONTROL: Houston’s roads, drivers are nation's most deadlyĭecades of sitting in the salt and foam and silt left her leaking. “For the first eight years I was here, it was pretty much drilled into my head you cannot move the battleship,” said Bruce Bramlett, executive director of the battleship foundation. Prior to 2017, the consensus was that the Battleship Texas would never leave port in one piece again. The Mighty-T as some call the ship has been in rough waters before, but in her condition simple ripples could make an ocean of difference. Graphic of battleship towing plan Ken Ellis / Houston Chronicle “The risk is leaking, and leaking severe enough that it might sink,” Gregory said. Or at least officials hope it does once it breaks free and is pulled into deeper waters. Unlike 1988 - the last time the ship moved when it went into drydock in Galveston for two years of repair - the ship floats much better on its own. “It is going to come out like it is backing out of a driveway,” said Trey Taylor, vice president of business development for Matthews Brothers. ![]() Workers with Matthews Brothers Dredging spent Memorial Day weekend and some other shifts carving a channel to the Houston Ship Channel itself, giving the Texas a 31-foot-deep slot from the ship’s stern to deeper water. Months of technical details, analysis and subsurface planning boil down to one thing: On Wednesday morning, absent an 11th-hour cancellation, tugboats will yank on the 110-year-old ship and hope it slides loose of the sandbar holding it in place. GULF KEEPS GOING: See old photos of I-45, as Houston's first freeway turns 70 You are not sure what is going to happen.” There is an element we won’t know until we are in the move. “But there is something you cannot plan for. “Everything we can plan for, we have planned for and considered,” Gregory said. Video: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle, Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle After years of preparation, Battleship Texas, the world's last surviving dreadnought that saw action in both world wars, will be moved to a dry dock in Galveston for a complete overhall.
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