Welcome Aboard!

This Month in the History of Big J...

May 1, 1944 - USS New Jersey's 16-inch salvos pounded Ponape, destroying fuel tanks, badly damaging the airfield and demolishing a headquarters building.

May 5, 1969 - After 331 days deployed, USS New Jersey returned to her Long Beach , CA homeport, completing her only tour of duty off the coast of Vietnam .

May 10, 1983 - USS New Jersey became the first surface ship to fire a successful Tomahawk cruise missile mission.

May 16, 1968 - USS New Jersey got underway and glided down the Delaware River , leaving behind the place of her birth, enroute to her new home on the West Coast.  Soon after the world's only active Battleship would be heading to Vietnam to fight in her third war and provide big gun support to the troops on the ground.

May 19, 1989 - Captain D.J. Katz is relieved by Captain R.D. Tucker as the 19th and last Commander of USS New Jersey, four days prior to her 46th birthday.

May 20 - 21, 1951 - USS New Jersey's guns opened the first shore bombardment of her Korean War career at Wonsan on May 20th.  It was on this first mission that she received her only combat casualties of the Korean War on May 21, 1951.  One crewman was killed and two others were severely wounded when the ship took a hit from a shore battery on Turret #1 and received a near miss aft to port.

May 23, 1943 - USS New Jersey was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard with Captain Carl F. Holden in command.

May 24, 1951 - USS New Jersey lost one of her helicopters when its crew pushed the limit of their fuel searching for a downed aviator.  The crew was able to reach friendly territory and was later returned to their ship.

The 6th Annual Battleship Blast will be Saturday, July 5th, 2008.  Enjoy cocktails, entertainment, dinner, and the best view of the fireworks display over the Delaware River - Plus help preserve the Battleship New Jersey.  For information call (866) 877-6262
ext. 102 or visit
www.battleshipnewjersey.org.

The 21st Annual Reunion of the USS New Jersey Veterans, Inc will be held in Cherry Hill New Jersey, September 17th - 21st, 2008.  They will spend one day onboard  visiting  Battleship, I'll post additional information in the near future.  In the meantime for reservation information you can call (800) 227-6963.

Big J's Volunteers were awarded the 2003
Governor’s Award for “Mobilization of Volunteers."
To date over 400,000 volunteer hours have been
logged for tours, renovations and maintenance.
Bravo Zulu to the crew, keep up the good work!

The USS New Jersey is open for tours, for
information about visiting click Here.

To see photos taken at the ships Grand Opening
Celebration on October 15, 2001 click
Here

Interested in Volunteering onboard?
For Information on joining the Crew click Here.

To see photos from my most recent
Volunteer Day onboard click Here.

For information on upcoming events
onboard the USS New Jersey click Here.

To see photos taken during my visit onboard the
Heavy Cruiser USS Des Moines (CA-134) during
a parts raid before she was scrapped click Here.

To see photos taken at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy
Center, the new Air and Space Museum Annex at
Dulles International Airport in Virginia, click Here.

The Jerseyman, a Quarterly online periodical written
and edited by Master Chief Tom Helvig, USN (Ret.),
is
available on this site.  To read the current or
past issues of The Jerseyman click Here.

The view as you approach

* * Current Status and General Information about the Ship * *

Welcome to the Online Home Port of the Battleship New Jersey.  I established this site for two main reasons: First, I wanted to chronicle the Final Voyage of this historic warship, home to the state for which she was named, and Second, I wanted to provide information about how you can Volunteer to help maintain and operate the ship by joining her Volunteer Crew.  Well, the Final Voyage is over, but the need for your help still remains.

The USS New Jersey completed her Final Voyage home from Bremerton, Washington to the former Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard, arriving there appropriately enough, on Veteran's Day 1999.  The Navy's decision of where to permanently berth the Battleship was announced on January 20, 2000, and the winner was... Camden!!!  On July 27, 2000 she was moved to the South Jersey Port Corporation's Beckett Street Terminal, where she remained for about 2 weeks.  While there she was opened to the public for Deck Tours on August 9th & 10th, and drew an estimated 11,000 visitors.  She was moved again on August 15, 2000 to another dock, the Broadway Terminal, where she underwent a year long, $7.3 Million restoration.  Finally, on September 23, 2001 she was moved to her new permanent home on the Camden waterfront.  She was officially opened to the public for tours on October 15, 2001.

This site contains lots of information about the USS New Jersey, the Navy's most decorated Battleship, including the Ships History, Battle Record, and Iowa Class Statistics.  It also contains information about how you can help with her ongoing restoration and operation and also fund the construction of a permanent onshore museum.  If you are a New Jersey Resident there are several easy ways you can help and there are also other ways everyone can help.  I myself belong to the the Home Port Alliance, they are the organization that currently has control of the ship and have opened her as a Museum on the Delaware River.  Another organization that worked a long time to bring Big J home is the Battleship New Jersey Historical  Society.  These two organizations have worked hard to bring the Navy's most decorated warship home to the state she was named for, and I'm proud to be a small part of their efforts.

If you're interested in reviewing Photos and entries from a Daily Journal kept during the ships final trip home, click on the Final Voyage button.  The Photo Gallery contains photos taken during the ships 4 different active duty periods and an extensive collection of pictures chronicling her final voyage home to New Jersey.  It also contains hundreds of photos taken by me over the past 6+ years showing the ships complete restoration, grand opening to the public and ongoing operations.  If you want to see a picture of a certain area of the ship, chances are you'll find it in the Photo Gallery, and if not, send me an e-mail and describe the area, and I'll take some for you the next time I'm onboard.

Feel free to send me any Comments or Suggestions you may have about this site, I value your input.  If you're interested in visiting websites for other Battleships, other Warships or Naval related sites be sure to check out the extensive Related Links list I compiled while researching for this site.  The list contains links to sites for well over 400 warships and many other Navy related sites.

I encourage you to get involved and help this great cause if you can.  You can join the Home Port Alliance for as little as $30.00 per year or you can help in numerous other ways.  For more information about how  you can help, click on the You Can Help button.  Even purchasing items from the Home Port Alliance's Ships Store helps the cause, and the Hats, Shirts and other items there are very nice.  Buy an official USS New Jersey Hat, a T-Shirt or a Golf Shirt and wear it with pride knowing a portion of its purchase price went to help restore and maintain the Battleship.  I thank you in advance for any help you can provide to this effort.   Don't forget to stop by and sign the Ships Log before you leave.  There are hundreds of entries in the Ships Log, many are from former crewmen looking for old shipmates.  Check out the Log Entries and see if you can hook up with an old buddy.  If you too are trying to get in touch with old shipmates, click on the Crew Info button for some helpful hints to get you started on your way.

 

Click here to visit the Save an MSO Site  (Mine Sweeper Ocean)

 
 

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Line Drawing of Big J

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Last updated on May 02, 2008.