[Music] hi I'm Ryan samanski curator for Battleship New Jersey museum and Memorial and today we have made the pilgrimage roughly a 100 yards from where Battleship New Jersey is in dryck over there at Philadelphia Ship Repair to Philly ship yard which is the home of the slipways where Battleship New Jersey was built these repurposed historic structures you see behind me are some of the remnants of where Battleship New Jersey was built just as an aside before we get going with this video Philly Shipyard is a defense contractor that's doing actual construction work right now their property is fenced off and you have to go through a security screening to get in here we did not just walk over and start filming we had to talk with their PR department and their security department everybody else uh before we got permission to come in so please don't just show up here and start poking around you'll get escorted out by security so let's go take a look around where New Jersey spent the first couple of years of her life [Music] [Music] [Music] there are two long slipways here over 900 ft long this one behind me I believe predates the other it's where Washington was built she was the 35,000 ton Battleship the South Dakota class were spread out to other yards but then after Washington's launch they had to strengthen this slipway to be able to accommodate a 45,000 ton Battleship New Jersey's laid down Wisconsin is authorized so on the other side they built another slipway or lengthened an existing smaller one I'm not entirely sure on that yet uh to be able to accommodate a second Iowa class Battleship after New Jersey is launched Illinois is laid down on this slipway you get a really good sense uh behind me of the angle of the slipways this curves down to the river over in that direction uh where where you can see a stand of trees that would have been the end of this slipway the building ways here at the former Philadelphia Navy Yard have an angle of declination of just 916 of an inch for every foot so you can see it's kind of a gentle slope downwards towards the river at the time of her launch New Jersey was the heaviest Stern first launch ship here on the Western Hemisphere she displaced 36,44 tons as launched for one thing she was the heaviest American Battleship built up to that point for another it is traditional to install the armored belt after the ship has already been launched but the Iowa class has an internal belt so you have to install it on the slipways in fact at the time of her launch only one ship ever was heavier than her and that was Queen Mary which was launched at a displacement of about 37,000 tons because of the extreme weight of the ship and because of the way the slipways are angled New Jersey was a Stern first launch so the stern of the ship would have been down that way towards the river with the bow up this way where the uh slipway has angled up enough to have buildings under it because she was a Stern first launch and because of weight consideration things like the ruds and propellers were not installed the ship was going to slide down the ways into the river other things like the gun turrets for main secondary and any aircraft batteries Fire Control directors uh parts of the super structure interior fittings none of that was on board yet which is why she's being launched at about 365 about 100 tons more than Iowa which had been launched a couple of months earlier New Jersey only held the record of the heaviest launch ship in North America for about a year cuz when Wisconsin was launched a year to the day after New Jersey uh she was about 100 tons heavier still Once Upon a Time these slipways were covered they were not fully enclosed the sides were open but there was a huge girder system built up on each side the slipways are now used as parking lots with the space in between the angled ways uh being the driveway getting in here this end of the ways you can see has been smoothed out for additional parking but the angle of declination should continue all the way down to the river where that stand of trees marks where a later bulkhead has been added to prevent erosion there was tremendous concern that a ship this heavy could even be launched Stern first in fact the Iowa class battleships displacements kept growing over the design phase and because of the end of the uh International treaty system they were no longer limited to 45,000 tons in fact New Jersey would grow uh to over 57,000 tons the last Iowa Kentucky was built in a dry dock because it was so difficult to launch ship Stern first this way and she was 10% lighter than New Jersey because they had switched from riveted Hall construction to all welded which saves about 5,000 tons on a ship this size to ensure New Jersey would actually slide down the ways on December 7th 1942 the Navy used 50 tons of lard to grease the rails under the ship to make sure she would slide if you were to use your Great Depression era chocolate chip cookie recipe you could turn 50 tons of lard into 10.5 million chocolate chip cookies that's one for every Soldier the United States enlisted during World War II and keep in mind lard was one of the rationed food stuffs during the war as it turns out the Navy had nothing to worry about New Jersey uh Not only was launched successfully they did their job too well maybe some of that lard could have been turned into the chocolate chip cookies because she sped down the ways so quickly that the tugboats waiting to receive her could not grab her in time and she went all the way across the river from here to New Jersey on the other side of the Delaware uh and it has been said since then that uh on the day of her launch New Jersey kissed her home state now I don't know too many people who kiss with their aft end but she certainly touched her home state and that's the only thing that stopped her so that the tugboats could grab her at that point they took her over to dry dock number three to install the Rudders and propellers and remove some of the cribbing and framing that were used uh to support the structure of the ship while she was here on the ways during one of the anniversaries of the Battle of Gettysburg General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine went back uh for the dedication of the statue and he he gave a whole speech um remember he's a college professor uh so I'm not going to be able to repeat all of the 10cent words that he gave but essentially boiled down to uh where great Deeds are performed greatness remains and you definitely have a sense of that in this Cathedral of American engineering and ingenu it around 50,000 Americans primarily from the Greater Philadelphia Camden area many of which from the state of New Jersey rode the ferry across the river to work here at the Philadelphia Navy Yard a collection of men and women with technical expertise that in some ways is not matched in this country today we able to churn out one of the greatest and longest lived warships in human history in just 32 months and the world's greatest battleship started her life right there on that slipway Philly ship does not still build ships on slipways and so it's not uncommon for things to be repurposed Battleship New Jersey is no longer an active warship but she has been repurposed into a museum and Memorial so she continues to serve her country likewise since Philly ship build ships in dryck now much like Illinois was the slipways have been repurposed into parking lot Lots but as you walk under these slipways you can see that they were definitely built to hold more weight than the cars that sit on them now and you can certainly understand why they haven't been demolished what are some other areas incredibly important to Battleship New Jersey that you think we should make a pilgrimage to in the future her slipways and Dry Dock number three are are two of those critical ones that we have only now after four years of making this channel that we've gotten the chance to visit what are some other ones you think we should look into let us know in the comments section down below Battleship New Jersey receives operating support from the New Jersey Department of State also from a number of other businesses and private individuals like yourselves we really appreciate your support there's a link in the description below for ways you can donate to support the museum and the ongoing restoration work we're doing in drydoc you can also support us by liking sharing subscribing so more people find out about the museum and our Channel thanks for watching
