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S.F. wants to win battleship Iowa

By Daniel Rubin
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

The last voyage of the 887-foot battleship USS Iowa could land it permanently docked in the Port of San Francisco.

After losing out in a high-stakes contest for the permanent home of the USS Missouri in 1996, supporters of bringing the massive ship to the Bay Area have reorganized and are setting their sights on snagging the namesake ship of the Iowa class battleship.

"This would be both a cultural and educational gain for The City," said Merylin Wong, a founding member of the group, named the Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square. "We want to make it an interactive learning experience for the visitors."

The group, which has a core membership of 35, has sent a letter of intent to the Navy, expressing a desire to take custody of the ship, which saw action in World War II and the Korean War. It was decommissioned in 1990.

Wong said her group is the only one that has asked for the ship, so far. On Dec. 18, however, Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., announced the Navy was considering moving the ship to Providence.

In support of San Francisco's bid for the Iowa, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has written to John Dalton, secretary of the Navy, urging the Navy to award the ship to The City.

The ship is docked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, which has been shut and sold by the Navy.

Wong said the group hopes to moor the ship at Pier 30-32, but city officials said they want to use that space for possible international cruise ships.

"The City is very interested in bringing any type of maritime operation to the port, but in the long term we are looking to use that as an international cruise line port," said Douglas Wong, executive director of the Port of San Francisco. "But we are trying to locate some potential sites for the ship."

He declined to specify what alternate piers have been suggested, but Merylin Wong said the parties have discussed using Pier 27 or 45 for the Iowa.

"Piers 30 through 32 are a highly desirable location, but the choice is not up to us," said Merylin Wong.

Supporters of bringing the Iowa said they are formulating a proposal to the Navy and hope to complete it by Feb. 22, the 55th anniversary of the commissioning of the ship.

Merylin Wong said the start-up costs of towing the battleship to San Francisco, setting up a museum and other costs could be about $5 million. She said the group believes it can raise money through private contributions.

The group estimates that at least 500,000 people would visit the ship every year and that the ship could act as an emergency command center for The City in the case of an earthquake or other disaster.

1944 repairs here

The Iowa has called San Francisco home before. In December 1944, the ship was seriously damaged during a storm in the Pacific and was repaired at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. After the war, the ship was decommissioned here, but in August 1951 was recommissioned in San Francisco for action in the Korean War.

While the Missouri had the honor of being the site of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, the Iowa did have a few glimpses of fame. It carried President Franklin Roosevelt to the Tehran Conferences of 1943, in which Allied leaders formulated a plan to beat the Axis nations.

The ship also experienced tragedy when 47 sailors were killed when a turret exploded.

According to the USS Iowa Veterans Association Web page, the ship displaces 45,000 tons and can hold 2,582,000 gallons of fuel. The electrical power generated by the ship could supply a city of 20,000 people. The ship could hold 100 tons of fresh fruit, 650 tons of dry stores and 84 tons of frozen meat.

The ship's armaments included three 16-inch gun turrets (a total of nine guns) and several smaller guns. It also had carried missiles, including Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, the Web page said.

10-year quest

San Francisco has been trying to secure a battleship for the area for about 10 years. In 1988, the plan to bring the still-active Missouri met with heavy opposition because of concerns about the cost of dredging Hunters Point.

In 1996, supporters tried again to get the Missouri, which had since been decommissioned. But the battleship was given to Honolulu instead.

Merylin Wong believes San Francisco is the front-runner in securing the Iowa.

"I think we are in a very desirable position," she said. "Honolulu had a lot of lead time in preparing to get the Missouri and we had to jump-start that campaign. We are not in the same position now." She said that the Honolulu group was better prepared in its bid to get the Missouri and had been coveting the Missouri for several years.

Veterans associated with the Iowa said it would be nice to have a battleship museum on the West Coast.

"I would personally like to see it go to the West Coast even though I live on the East Coast, because there are a lot of warship museums out here," said John Schultz, Web master for the USS Iowa Veterans Association (www.ussiowa.org/index1.htm). "It would be great to have one out there."

Schultz, of North Carolina, was a communications officer on the Iowa from 1983 to 1987.

"Battleships just have this mystique about them," he said. "When we would pull into port around the world, people would be lining up to see us. They wouldn't want to see the other type of boats. They wanted to see a battleship."

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