Journal Entry  -  October 12, 1999  -  Day 31

Tuesday Morning Position Report
8:00 a.m., Central Daylight Time
Latitude:

8 Degrees, 19 Minutes North

Longitude:

84 Degrees, 34 Minutes West

Days Run:

58.2 Nautical Miles

Speed:

4.85 Knots (Average)  running at reduced speed due to a fixed ETA of October 16 at the Panama Canal

Total Run This Leg:  2,542.1 Nautical Miles
Total Average Speed:  5.17 Knots
Hours / Days This Leg:  491.5 Hours, 20.48 Days
Distance To Go This Leg:  405.7 Nautical Miles
Estimated Time Of Arrival:  7:00 a.m., Saturday, October 16, Balboa Sea Buoy, Panama
Present Course:  117 Degrees Southeasterly
Winds:  West-Southwest at 18 Knots
Seas:  3 Feet
Swells:  8 Feet from the Southwest
Barometric Pressure:  1011 Millibars
Air Temperature:  76 Degrees
Sea Temperature:  79 Degrees
Visibility:  10 Miles
Skies:  Showers
Sea Floor:  Ocean depths in these sparsely chartered waters range from 1,987 to 2,478 Fathoms, or from 11,922 to 14,868 Feet.

Position:  USS New Jersey is now 46 Miles Southwest of Isla del Cano, Costa Rica, which lies due West of the Peninsula de Osa, forming the lower edge of the Bahia de Coronado on the Costa Rican Pacific coastline.   Beyond these coastal points, running through the mid-section of the country, are the Cordillera de Talamanca, eventually crossing the boundary between Costa Rica and Panama.

USS New Jersey's 1967-68 Modernization - $21.5 Million

The USS New Jersey had been mothballed at Bayonne since August, 1957, when ten years later, she was called up again to serve the forces in Vietnam.  The Battleship's general activation orders would require $21,500,000, ten months at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and a work crew upwards of 2,000 yardmen to perform the make-over.

The orders included the following:

1. General Activation Order

Activate - 16-inch guns, 5-inch guns and equipment; all deck equipment berthing, messing, office, work spaces, main propulsion system and auxiliary machinery.

Do Not Activate - Flag offices, 40mm magazines, some storerooms, some unused staterooms in flag area.

Remove - 16 quad 40mm - total 64 guns; (the 60 20mm guns were removed previously).

Update - Fire control and ordnance systems.

2. Modernization

New gun fire control computers and target designation system.

New communications equipment.

New detection and navigational radars.

Helicopter landing area and facilities.

Medical and Dental - all new equipment, new operating room facilities, three new dental chair units.

To Improve Habitability:

Air-condition all living and messing spaces

Tile decks

New fluorescent lighting

Four-man tables on mess deck

Individual reading lamps over each bunk

Three inch foam-rubber mattress on each bunk

Bunks in tiers of three instead of four (In most areas)

3. Manpower and Time

In the ten months at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, a crew of up to 2,000 yard workmen involved with ship.  Drydocked for three months to accomplish all necessary hull work, painting, removal of outlet seals, work on underwater equipment such as propellers and rudders.

4. Cost - $21,500,000.00

Then, on April 6, 1968, the new, and only Battleship operating in the world at the time, USS New Jersey was recommissioned, and her new Commanding Officer, Captain J. Edward Snyder assumed control, prepared to take her firepower to Southeast Asia at the height of the Vietnam War.

Submitted by Bob Wernet onboard the Sea Victory.

 

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