USS Intrepid (CV-11)

Career
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding
Laid down: 1 December 1941
Launched: 26 April 1943
Commissioned: 16 August 1943
Decommissioned: 15 March 1974
Reclassified: CV to CVA 1 October 1952
CVA to CVS 31 March 1962
Struck: 23 February 1982
Nickname: "Fighting I"
Fate: Museum ship in New York City.
General characteristics
Class and type: Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement: As built:
27,100 tons standard
36,380 tons full load
Length: As built:
820 feet (250 m) waterline
872 feet (266 m) overall
Beam: As built:
93 feet (28 m) waterline
147 feet 6 inches (45 m) overall
Draft: As built:
28 feet 5 inches (8.66 m) light
34 feet 2 inches (10.41 m) full load
Propulsion: As designed:
8 × boilers 565 psi (3,900 kPa) 850 °F (450 °C)
4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines
4 × shafts
150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)
Range: 20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement: As built:
2,600 officers and enlisted
Armament: As built:
4 × twin 5 inch (127 mm) 38 caliber guns
4 × single 5 inch (127 mm) 38 caliber guns
8 × quadruple 40 mm 56 caliber guns
46 × single 20 mm 78 caliber guns
Armor: As built:
2.5 to 4 inch (60 to 100 mm) belt
1.5 inch (40 mm) hangar and protectice decks
4 inch (100 mm) bulkheads
1.5 inch (40 mm) STS top and sides of pilot house
2.5 inch (60 mm) top of steering gear
Aircraft carried: As built:
90–100 aircraft
1 × deck-edge elevator
2 × centerline elevators

USS Intrepid (CV/CVA/CVS-11), also known as The Fighting "I", is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. She is the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name. Commissioned in August 1943, Intrepid participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, most notably the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she served mainly in the Atlantic, but also participated in the Vietnam War. Her notable achievements include being the recovery ship for a Mercury and a Gemini space mission. Because of her prominent role in battle, she was nicknamed "the Fighting I", while her often ill-luck and the time spent in dry dock for repairs earned her the nickname "the Dry I".

Decommissioned in 1974, in 1982 Intrepid became the foundation of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City.

Contents

Construction & commissioning

Intrepid was launched on 26 April 1943 by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia, the fifth Essex-class aircraft carrier to be launched. She was sponsored by the wife of Vice Admiral John H. Hoover. On 16 August 1943, she was commissioned with Captain Thomas L. Sprague in command before heading to the Caribbean for shakedown and training. Intrepid's motto upon setting sail was "In Mare In Caelo", which means "On the sea, in the sky", or "In the sea in Heaven".

Service history

World War II

Intrepid has one of the most distinguished service records of any Navy ship, seeing active service in the Pacific Theater including the Marshall Islands, Truk, Leyte Gulf, and Okinawa. At war's end, she was in Enewetak and soon supported occupation forces providing air support and supply services before heading back to California.

Marshalls, January–February 1944

Palaus and Philippines, September–November 1944

Okinawa and Japan, March–December 1945

Post-war

1955–1961

1962–1965

1965–1974

This was the final Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) job performed by the New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York, which was slated to close after more than a century and a half of service to the nation.

Mid-1966 found Intrepid with the Pacific Fleet off Vietnam. Nine A-4 Skyhawks and six A-1 Skyraiders, loaded with bombs and rockets, were catapulted in seven minutes, with only a 28-second interval between launches. A few days later planes were launched at 26-second intervals. After seven months of service with the 7th Fleet off Vietnam, Intrepid returned to Norfolk having earned her Commanding Officer, Captain John W. Fair, the Legion of Merit for combat operations in Southeast Asia.

In June 1967, Intrepid returned to the Western Pacific by way of the Suez Canal just prior to its closing during the Israeli-Arab crisis. There she began another tour with the 7th Fleet.

In 1968, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.

In 1969, Intrepid was home ported at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, relieving Yorktown as the flagship for Commander Carrier Division 16. In the fall, the ship was run aground by Captain Horus E. Moore, but was freed within two hours. From April–October 1971, Intrepid took part in NATO exercises, and made calls in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean ports of Lisbon, Plymouth, Kiel, Naples, Cannes, Barcelona, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Greenock, Rosyth, Portsmouth, and Bergen. During this cruise, submarine detection operations were conducted in the Baltic and at the edge of the Barents Sea above the Arctic Circle, under close scrutiny of Soviet air and naval forces. She subsequently returned to her homeport to be refitted and then, beginning in July 1972, Intrepid participated once again in NATO exercises, visiting Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Bergen, Brussels, Portsmouth and Gourock. Once again she found herself in the Barents and made round the clock flight operations as Intrepid was once again above the Arctic Circle. She cut her North Atlantic cruise short, returned to Quonset point for a mini-overhaul and was designated as CV-11 and made her final cruise in the Mediterranean, stopping twice in Barcelona and Malaga Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; Nice, France; Naples, Italy; Palma, Majorca; and Piraeus, Greece once. Due to fuel limitations Intrepid spent as much time in port as she did underway.

Preservation as museum ship

USS Intrepid
Intrepid functioning as the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City.
Location: Intrepid Square, New York, New York
Built: 1941
Architect: Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock
Governing body: Private
NRHP Reference#: 86000082
Significant dates
Added to NRHP: 14 January 1986[3]
Designated NHL: 14 January 1986[4]

In 1976, Intrepid was moored at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia and hosted exhibits as part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations.

Plans originally called for Intrepid to be scrapped after decommissioning, but a campaign led by real estate developer Zachary Fisher and the Intrepid Museum Foundation saved the carrier, and established it as a museum ship. In August 1982, the ship opened in New York City as the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. Four years later, Intrepid was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark.[4][5]

Over the years, Intrepid has hosted many special events including wrestling events, press conferences, parties and the FBI operations center after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.[6]

2006–2008 renovation

Throughout the last several years, the Intrepid museum has operated a fund for the restoration, raising over $60 million to refit Intrepid, to improve its exhibits for visitors, and improve Pier 86.

In early July 2006, it was announced that Intrepid would undergo renovations and repairs, along with Pier 86 itself. It closed on 1 October 2006, in preparation for its towing to Bayonne, New Jersey for repairs, and later Staten Island, New York for renovation and temporary docking.[7][8]

On 6 November 2006, an attempt to remove the aircraft carrier from the pier for restoration was temporarily put on hold by the Coast Guard. Despite the use of several tugs with a combined 30,000 hp (22,000 kW), officials said the ship was stuck in 24 years worth of accumulated silt and would not move.

On 11 November 2006, the United States Navy announced that it would spend $3 million to dredge the mud and silt from under Intrepid. The effort was led by the United States Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving with assistance from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, United States Coast Guard, and contractors. The teams operated for three weeks to clear the site of mud and silt.

On 5 December 2006, after the removal of 39,000 cu yd (30,000 m3) of muck from under the ship and around its four giant screws, Intrepid was successfully removed from its pier and was towed to Bayonne.[9]

Intrepid made a D-Day "landing" on Staten Island, 6 June 2007, after being towed from a slip at Bayonne Dry Dock & Repair Corp.

While in Staten Island, Intrepid underwent the next phase of her refurbishment, and received an $8 million interior renovation. Never-before-seen areas of the ship including the forecastle (fo'c'sle, commonly known as the anchor chain room), general berthing quarters and the ship's machine shop were opened to the public for the first time. The hangar deck features a new layout and design including new interactive exhibits. Total cost of the renovation was $120 million — $55 million for the ship and $65 million for Pier 86.[10]

The carrier was towed back into place on the Hudson River on 2 October 2008 and reopened to the public on 8 November.[10]

The Intrepid with the USS Growler (SSG-577) in the lower left during Fleet Week 2010

Media appearances

The story of the Intrepid's move was featured on the History Channel's Mega Movers program. The episode was titled "Intrepid: On the Move" and premiered 5 July 2007.

The ship has been featured in blockbuster films, including Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, the 2004 film National Treasure and the 2007 film I Am Legend,[11][12] as well as Bordello: House of the Rising Sun.

The ship can seen briefly in a shot of New York in the last few seconds of the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck, next to the SS Tipton being dismantled.

See also

References

  1. ^ "U.S.S. INTREPID - handling of after Battle Damage.", Captain T. L. Sprague, USS Intrepid
  2. ^ "Honoring our Heroes" (Press release). North Penn Reporter. 28 May 2004. http://www.thereporteronline.com/articles/2004/05/28/today%27s%20stories/11815104.txt?viewmode=fullstory. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
  3. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
  4. ^ a b "INTREPID, USS (Aircraft Carrier)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1942&ResourceType=Structure. Retrieved 2008-01-26. 
  5. ^ Harry A. Butowsky (May, 1985) (PDF). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: USS Intrepid (CV-11). National Park Service. http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/86000082.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-22  and Accompanying 8 photos, exterior and interior, from 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1944.PDF (1.27 MB)
  6. ^ Milton, Pat (7 November 2006). "Mud Stops USS Intrepid Move From N.Y. Pier". Washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/06/AR2006110600971.html. Retrieved 2007-03-21. 
  7. ^ "The Intrepid Will Be Temporarily Moved and Pier 86 Will be Reconstructed Under an Historic $55 Million-Plus Capital Expansion Plan". Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum. Archived from the original on 2006-10-05. http://web.archive.org/web/20061005111635/http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/intrepidmuseum/press/item.php?id=43. Retrieved 2007-03-21. 
  8. ^ "Intrepid to Close for Repairs, Renovation". Marinelink.com. http://www.marinelink.com/Story/ShowStory.aspx?StoryID=203707. Retrieved 2007-03-21. 
  9. ^ Briefly, Slowly, Intrepid Moves Again - New York Times
  10. ^ a b Pyle, Richard, "Aircraft carrier survived wars, years of decay", Associated Press (printed in the Washington Times, p. 10), September 30, 2008.
  11. ^ "INTREPID: ON THE MOVE A MEGA MOVERS SHOW". http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/intrepidmuseum/index.php?MERCURYSID=b7a01130131c2e45a156c6f326da0925. 
  12. ^ "Episode: Intrepid: On the Move". http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=228768. 

Further reading

External links