The USS Intrepid Returns Home

After a long refurbishment in New Jersey and Staten Island, the USS Intrepid is being towed back to Pier 86 in Manhattan.

Some 400 guests and former crew members also rode along,mingling on the flight deck in 60 degree weather. Jeff McAllister, commanding a tugboat fleet generating about 18,000 horsepower, said the stiff westerly wind was favorable for the task, as it would allow the estimated 38,900-ton carrier to be guided into its newly rebuilt pier in the Hudson River.

The Intrepid was to arrive home on Thursday afternoon, following brief stops to salute the Statue of Liberty and unfurl a large American flag near Ground Zero, honoring victims of the terrorist attacks.

McAllister said he did not anticipate the type of problems that plagued the ship when it was first moved from the Manhattan pier: Its propellers got stuck in the mud. The Army Corps of Engineers has since dredged the pierside channel to 35 feet, giving the Intrepid 11 feet of bottom clearance at high tide. It also was widened to 110 feet to accommodate the hull, which is 103 feet wide at the water line.

Launched in 1943 as one of the Navy's then-new Essex-class attack carriers, USS Intrepid figured in six major Pacific War campaigns including Leyte Gulf, history's greatest naval battle, surviving five Japanese kamikaze suicide planes.

It later saw service in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was twice a recovery ship for NASA astronauts before it was decommissioned and mothballed in a Philadelphia shipyard -- slated for demolition until rescued by New York real estate developer and philanthropist Zachary Fisher.

I managed to catch a little bit of the processional as the ship slowly came up the Hudson River near the World Financial Center, and you can watch the ship heading back to its Manhattan pier from an on board webcam. More than a dozen ships and tugs are accompanying the aircraft carrier on its journey. There was a sizable crowd at the World Financial Center watching the Intrepid moving up to its berth. Buzzing overhead were a half dozen helicopters covering the ship's journey.

The ship, home to the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum is set to reopen for Veterans Day.