{"id":53148,"date":"2026-10-26T15:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T19:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=53148"},"modified":"2026-10-25T07:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T11:33:20","slug":"a-tugboat-and-a-crane-barge-helped-move-the-45000-ton-battleship-wisconsin-about-five-feet-off-its-norfolk-pier-its-first-move-since-2000-so-crews-could-replace-the-fender-cushioning-its-hull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/a-tugboat-and-a-crane-barge-helped-move-the-45000-ton-battleship-wisconsin-about-five-feet-off-its-norfolk-pier-its-first-move-since-2000-so-crews-could-replace-the-fender-cushioning-its-hull\/53148\/","title":{"rendered":"A tugboat and a crane barge helped move the 45,000-ton Battleship Wisconsin about five feet off its Norfolk pier, its first move since 2000, so crews could replace the fender cushioning its hull"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On September 8, 2026, crews in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, got the Battleship Wisconsin to budge from its pier for the first time since 2000. Crofton, a Portsmouth company, brought its Huntsman tug and a barge with a crane on deck. They nudged the 45,000-ton ship out by approximately five feet (about 1.5 meters).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why bother? Crofton wrote that the ship had to come off the wall for maintenance that week, so workers could replace its marine fender. That’s the thick bumper squeezed between the hull and the pier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huntsman and a crane barge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Crofton told the story in a short post on its website<\/a> one day later, on September 9. By the company’s count, the old battleship had stayed tied up at that downtown pier for over 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Five feet may not sound like much, but moving a ship of this size takes serious precision,” the company wrote. In the photo it posted, the white-and-blue Huntsman pushes in close to the bow, with the hull number 64 just above it. The black barge, CROFTON painted on its side, waits farther aft with its crane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For scale, Nauticus gives the Wisconsin’s length as 887 feet 3 inches (270 meters) and its beam as 108 feet 2 inches (33 meters). Fully loaded, it once displaced 58,000 tons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five feet out from a beam that wide is not much room for a work crew. Moving warship steel over land is a far bigger production, as the case of a 16,300-ton naval block on a 324-axle trailer<\/a> showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubber that absorbs berthing energy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Who made the new fender, Crofton didn’t say. Trelleborg, a Swedish firm that sells fenders to ports, spelled out why they matter in a 2022 article: “Fenders are mission-critical equipment, and are essential to the safety and efficiency of port operations, protecting vessels and terminals alike.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every ship that comes alongside carries kinetic energy, and Trelleborg says the fender has to soak it up. Engineers size it for the worst case, then correct for temperature, approach angle and speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article also asks designers to plan for maintenance access and wear from day one. Cheap materials, Trelleborg warns, mean a fender that gives out sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anything below the waterline is a dry dock job, not a fender job. Austal, for instance, launched a 694-foot floating dry dock in Mobile<\/a> that lifts warships by sinking first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A museum ship owned by Norfolk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Norfolk has owned the ship since December 14, 2009, when the Navy signed it over, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command<\/a>. At a Nauticus ceremony on April 16, 2010, the Navy dropped its old demand that the ship stay ready for recall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today a regular Nauticus ticket gets you aboard. “Admission fees help preserve and maintain the battleship for future generations,” the center says on its page about the battleship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crofton used much the same language about the fender work. It wrote that the job would “help ensure the Wisconsin can continue to welcome visitors and be preserved for generations to come.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some museum battleships have needed a lot more than a bumper. The USS Texas came back only after more than 300,000 hours of restoration<\/a>. The Wisconsin went onto the National Register of Historic Places on March 28, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomahawks and 16-inch guns in 1991<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Commissioned on April 16, 1944, the Wisconsin served in World War II, Korea and the 1991 Gulf War. Nauticus says it earned five battle stars in World War II and one in Korea. The Gulf brought a Navy Unit Commendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early on January 17, 1991, the ship directed the Tomahawk launches that opened Operation Desert Storm. The naval history office says it served as Tomahawk Strike Warfare Commander for the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over eight months there, the Wisconsin fired 24 Tomahawk land-attack missiles. Its 16-inch guns fired 528 rounds in 36 naval gunfire support missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Battleship
The Wisconsin fires a broadside to port with its 16-inch and 5-inch guns, circa 1988-91. (Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 97207-KN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The same history lists 348 hours flown by the ship’s remotely piloted aircraft and 46,000 nautical miles steamed. The Wisconsin was decommissioned at Norfolk Naval Station’s Pier 11 on September 30, 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air Vehicle 159 over Faylaka<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of those remotely piloted aircraft now hangs in the Smithsonian. The National Air and Space Museum<\/a> says the Wisconsin’s crew launched Pioneer Air Vehicle 159 over Faylaka Island, near Kuwait City. Its job was to check damage after shelling from the battleship Missouri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the drone passed low, a number of Iraqi soldiers waved white flags. Marines later landed and collected them. The museum calls it “the first time that humans had surrendered to a robot in combat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pioneer
The Pioneer RQ-2A drone marked 159, seen from below as it hangs on display at the National Air and Space Museum. (Image: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, NASM2018-10261)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Navy donated Air Vehicle 159 to the museum in October 2000, the same year the Wisconsin last moved. Museum curators had asked for that exact airframe. Its wingspan is 16 feet 10 inches (5.1 meters).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fender size and cost unpublished<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Crofton’s post does not give the size, make or number of fenders replaced. It does not put a price on the job either, and Nauticus had not posted its own account by late October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contractor’s account also ends with the move itself. It does not say when the battleship went back to its usual berth. Nor does it say how long the new fender should last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crofton’s account of the move was published on September 9, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Crofton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 8, 2026, crews in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, got the Battleship Wisconsin to budge from its pier for the … <\/p>\n

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