The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate | By Serena Puang
According to TripAdvisor, the USS Kidd is the No. 1 tourist attraction in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The World War II Fletcher-class destroyer is the only one preserved in its wartime configuration. It’s made its home in Baton Rouge since 1982.
Now, it’s getting a major makeover.
After being stuck for several months due to the 2023 drought, the Kidd left Baton Rouge and floated down to Houma in April. On Tuesday, the destroyer was safely moved into dry dock, thanks to the hard work of 30 shipyard workers laboring in extreme heat.
The Kidd is now ready and positioned for major repairs and renovation, and it’s coming just in time.
“If we waited another year, she might have sunk right in the cradle,” said Parks Stephenson, executive director of the USS Kidd Veterans Museum.
Over the years, the Kidd has taken damage from the cradle, a unique structure designed specifically to keep the ship in place as it rises and falls with the water levels in the Mississippi River.
In order to move the ship, it had to be removed from the cradle. Due to the low water levels, workers only had a one-day window, and the maneuver required cutting 4 feet off the rudder.
Seeing most ships out of the water is a once-in-a-lifetime event, but the Kidd is different.
“The Kidd is the only museum ship in the world that floats half the year and is completely out of the water and sitting on her keel blocks the other half of the year,” said Stephenson.
Visitors can see the Kidd out of the water every year, but Stephenson and his team are excited about what the repairs mean for the Kidd in the future.
The $11 million project funded by the state will fix the hull, repaint the ship with a new design, rebuild the sewage system and restore the steward’s quarters — the living space for the members of the segregated, Black crew who served in the Navy. The original quarters were removed when segregation was outlawed, but the staff agree that the history is important. The USS Kidd Museum plans to partner with the Baton Rouge African American Museum to help tell that story.
“That’s one thing that’s going to be exciting for Baton Rouge,” said Stephenson. “They’ve seen this thing sit on our riverfront for 40 years. When she comes back, she’s not only going to look new, but she’s going to look completely different.”
These changes might seem like boring logistical details to some, said Stephenson, but they are vital in keeping the Kidd in Baton Rouge for another 60 years — and the modifications are so large in scale that the team at the Kidd could not do them while the ship was in Baton Rouge, even with the Kidd out of the water.
Like it or not, a functioning sewage system is a really important aspect of keeping the overnight-ship experience alive. The current sewage system was cobbled together in the early 1980s, and the tank has 40 years of build-up to show for it. According to Stephenson, the Kidd’s staff was constantly worried the system would fail at any moment.
Imagine 20 12-year-olds on a ship overnight with no functioning toilets.
Work on the Kidd will be completed by February, but Baton Rouge will have to wait until the river rises again to have her back. Until then, the Kidd might make a pit stop in New Orleans.
Stephenson is tentatively planning the Kidd’s return for early May. In the meantime, the team at the museum is working to keep the Kidd relevant in the 21st century.
“The city and the museum are tied together,” said Stephenson.
They did an economic impact survey to see how much money the Kidd and the museum returns to the city. According to that survey, the WWII destroyer and accompanying museum returned $3.1 million in 2023, and they project that it’ll jump to over $5 million annually once the Kidd is back. This includes people eating at local restaurants, buying from local shops and the creation of jobs for contractors who work at the museum.
But it’s hard to sell a warship these days, Stephenson said.
The Historic Naval Ships Association expects half the nation’s museum ship fleet to be scrapped because they can’t stay afloat due to increasing docking costs, insurance rates and repair expenses. The WWII veterans who volunteer and host events on the Kidd and other ships are aging. At the Kidd, they want to respect and honor veterans — they’re also a veterans’ museum — but they also want to move with the times and reach out to new generations.
Without the ship, tourism at the museum is down, according to Todd Maulding, business manager for the USS Kidd. For now, visitors can see the museum for a reduced rate of $5 (down from $15).
Despite these challenges, the staff is hard at work. The USS Kidd YouTube channel has recently been monetized. The staff is currently planning a pirate prom and doing outreach to the gaming industry because games like “World of Warships” often feature destroyers like the Kidd.
The seven-hour dry docking process Tuesday gave the team time to film content and discuss plans for the future. Media coordinator Molly Bahlinger said that if they raised $100 in Super Chats via the livestream, Stephenson would recreate a scene from the “Titanic” movie. He worked with James Cameron on the film and has dove down to the wreckage himself. Stephenson got up while the dry dock was draining and recorded it.
This footage of Kidd’s staff recreating the door scene with a lot less romance has yet to be released, but the team is ready to welcome the newly refitted Kidd and visitors back with open arms.
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