USS Intrepid (Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum)
Hell's Kitchen | built 1930
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1944
A torpedo hits Intrepid during the raid on Truk, jamming her rudder and flooding compartments
On February 17, 1944, Intrepid sailed with three fast carrier groups that reached Truk undetected and spent two days sinking two Japanese destroyers and over 200,000 tons of merchant shipping. During the assault an aerial torpedo struck her 15 feet below the waterline, flooding several compartments and jamming the rudder over to port. The ship made it back to Pearl Harbor on February 24.
Source: history.navy.mil
- 1944
Two kamikazes crash into Intrepid off the Philippines, killing 65 crewmen
On November 25, 1944, a heavy force of Japanese aircraft attacked the task force shortly after noon, and two kamikazes struck Intrepid within minutes, killing 65 of her crew. The carrier never lost propulsion or left her station, and her crew put out the last fire in under two hours. She steamed for San Francisco the next day and arrived on December 20 for repairs. A kamikaze had already killed 10 of her crew on October 30.
Source: history.navy.mil
- 1944
Intrepid's planes strike the battleship Musashi in the Sibuyan Sea
On October 24, 1944, an Intrepid scout plane spotted Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's flagship Yamato, and the carrier's strike two hours later opened the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea. Helldivers and Avengers from Intrepid hit the battleship Musashi with bombs and torpedoes in successive waves. By mid-afternoon, 37 aircraft from Intrepid, Franklin and Cabot scored 13 bomb and 11 torpedo hits, and Musashi sank, forcing Kurita to break off his advance for a time.
“Two minutes later, the battleship Musashi was struck starboard amidships by a torpedo from a Grumman TBF Avenger, also from Intrepid.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1945
A kamikaze crashes through Intrepid's flight deck as a Marine pilot watches
A Japanese suicide plane hit Intrepid on April 16, 1945. Marine flier Lieutenant Henry G.C. Henneberger, who saw it, said in a 1945 interview that it approached 30 feet above the water while antiaircraft guns failed to stop it, then crashed through the flight deck to the hangar deck below. The Times later noted that four kamikazes had struck the carrier, which earned the title of most-hit ship of the war.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1954
Intrepid becomes the first carrier to launch aircraft with an American-built steam catapult
After Intrepid was recommissioned in 1952, she went to Norfolk to be modernized for jet aircraft and reclassified as an attack carrier, and was recommissioned in reserve on June 18, 1954. On October 13, 1954, she became the first carrier to launch aircraft with American-built steam catapults. She entered full commission with the Atlantic Fleet two days afterward.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1962
Intrepid's helicopters pick up astronaut Malcolm S. Carpenter after his Aurora 7 splashdown
Intrepid was the principal recovery ship for Project Mercury's Aurora 7 mission, and on May 24, 1962, astronaut Malcolm S. Carpenter splashed down several hundred miles from her. Two helicopters with NASA staff, medical specialists, Navy frogmen and photographers aboard took off minutes after he was located, and one of them lifted him out over an hour later. He was flown to the carrier, which later returned him safely to the United States.
Source: history.navy.mil
- 1963
Intrepid joins the hunt for a hijacked Venezuelan freighter
In late February 1963, Intrepid broke off exercises in the Caribbean to help search for the Venezuelan freighter Anzoategui, which pro-Castro mutineers led by the second mate had hijacked. The mutineers surrendered at Rio de Janeiro, and the carrier returned to Norfolk on March 23.
“…she interrupted these operations to join a sea hunt for the Venezuelan freighter Anzoategui, which had been hijacked by a group of pro-Castro mutineers…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1965
Gemini 3 astronauts John Young and Virgil Grissom are flown to Intrepid after splashdown
On March 23, 1965, Lieutenant Commander John W. Young and Major Virgil I. Grissom splashed down about 50 miles from Intrepid in Gemini 3. An Intrepid helicopter lifted them out of the capsule and flew them to the carrier for medical examination and debriefing. The ship later retrieved the capsule and carried it and the astronauts to Cape Kennedy in Florida. Afterward she went into the Brooklyn Navy Yard for an overhaul.
Source: history.navy.mil
- 1966
A Skyraider pilot from Intrepid shoots down a MiG-17 over Vietnam
On October 9, 1966, Lieutenant (junior grade) William T. Patton of squadron VA-176 flew a propeller-driven A-1H Skyraider from Intrepid and shot down a MiG-17. He received the Silver Star. Intrepid made three Vietnam deployments between April 1966 and February 1969, and in 1966 her crews launched strike aircraft at intervals as short as 26 to 28 seconds.
“Lieutenant, junior grade William T. Patton of VA-176 from Intrepid, flying a propeller driven A-1H Skyraider, shot down one MiG-17.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1967
Four sailors walk away from Intrepid in Tokyo and become the Intrepid Four
On October 23, 1967, as a day of shore leave ended, Craig Anderson, John Barilla, Richard Bailey and Michael Lindner destroyed their IDs and uniforms in Tokyo, deserting after Intrepid docked from a bombing mission off Vietnam. A Japanese pacifist group helped them stow away on a Russian freighter; they reached Moscow and then Sweden. Anderson was later arrested and discharged in 1972. The museum now has an exhibit about them.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1969
Intrepid runs aground under her captain after becoming a Rhode Island flagship
In 1969 Intrepid took Quonset Point, Rhode Island, as her home port, relieving Yorktown as flagship of Commander Carrier Division 16. That fall her commanding officer, Captain Horus E. Moore, ran the carrier aground, though she was freed within two hours.
“In the fall, the ship was run aground by Captain Horus E. Moore, but was freed within two hours.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1978
Developer Zachary Fisher joins the foundation that saves Intrepid from the scrap yard and opens it as a museum
In 1978 New York developer Zachary Fisher became part of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, a campaign to keep the battle-scarred carrier out of the scrap yard. Four years of work led to the Intrepid Museum opening in New York in 1982, the same year Fisher set up his Armed Services Foundation. Through that foundation he paid $25,000 gifts to many bereaved military families, an effort that later inspired the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
Source: fallenheroesfund.org
- 1982
Intrepid opens as a floating museum at Pier 86 after a $22 million refit
The Times reported on the eve of the August 3, 1982 opening that the carrier, rescued from the scrapyard and refitted for $22 million, would draw up to 6,000 visitors a day at $5 for adults and $2.50 for children. A Grumman F-11 with a mannequin pilot sat on a steam catapult, its exhaust lit at night, and one hangar elevator had become a theater. Mayor Koch and former crew were due at the 1 p.m. ceremony.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1987
Investigators say the Westies gang skimmed ticket money at the Intrepid museum
Federal and city investigators disclosed on April 3, 1987, that the Hell's Kitchen gang the Westies had siphoned funds from the carrier museum, mainly through stolen box-office receipts and no-show jobs held by members of Local 1909 of the longshoremen's union. The executive director put the loss at no less than several hundred thousand dollars. Five ticket sellers were dismissed on March 13. The museum's foundation had already filed for bankruptcy reorganization in June 1985, citing $28.4 million in debts.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1989
The submarine Growler joins the carrier at Pier 86 to draw repeat visitors
The museum added the submarine Growler, which carried nuclear Regulus missiles, towing it in late 1988 and opening it to the public the next May. The destroyer Edson, the Navy's last all-gun destroyer, followed in July 1989. At the time few visitors came twice, and Zachary Fisher hoped the two ships would bring returning patrons.
“At the time, the museum had few repeat visitors, and Fisher hoped that Growler and Edson would attract returning patrons.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The Intrepid becomes a temporary headquarters for the FBI's New York office after September 11
After the 2001 attacks, the museum served as a temporary base for the FBI's New York Field Office, whose own offices had been in the World Trade Center. The museum says over 500 agents worked around the clock on the ship as they coordinated the investigation, and the complex also supported FEMA and state and local emergency responders. Today a 9/11 memorial at the southwest end of Pier 86 holds two World Trade Center I-beams, about 12 feet tall and roughly 3,000 pounds each.
Source: intrepidmuseum.org
- 2003
A retired Concorde arrives on a barge, to a pier of empty chairs
A Concorde, one of seven just retired by British Airways, sailed up the Hudson on a rusty barge to the museum at Pier 86 on November 25, 2003, to be displayed on a 260-foot barge. Speakers at the chilly ceremony were mostly American, with a British deputy consul the fifth to talk. Afterward two British tourists found the jet alone on the barge, a pier full of empty chairs around it.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2006
Intrepid cannot leave Pier 86 until crews dredge 24 years of silt from beneath her
Intrepid was to be towed away for repairs in fall 2006, but on November 6 she could not be moved because 24 years of silt had built up around her. A three-week, $3 million dredging program cleared the mud, and she was pulled from Pier 86 on December 5 and towed to Bayonne, New Jersey. A later stop at Staten Island brought an $8 million interior renovation, and she returned to the Hudson on October 2, 2008.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
The refitted Intrepid is towed back to Pier 86 as crowds cheer
On October 2, 2008, four tugs towed the 65-year-old carrier from Staten Island to her old berth, and she slid in just after 2 p.m. About 200 former crew rode along, saluting at the World Trade Center site and unfurling a flag that had hung at 1 Liberty Plaza after 9/11. The overhaul and rebuilt pier cost over $100 million, and the museum was set to reopen on November 8.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2012
Space shuttle Enterprise rides a barge up the Hudson past the Statue of Liberty to the Intrepid
On Wednesday, June 6, 2012, the space shuttle Enterprise rode a barge down the Hudson River, passing the Statue of Liberty as it was towed toward the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. NASA's caption for the photograph says the orbiter would be displayed there permanently. The image is credited to Bill Ingalls of NASA.
Source: nasa.gov
Further reading
- USS Intrepid (CV-11)Wikipedia
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