Big J | Scene Through the Lens

Dry and high

May 20, 2024: A plane taking off from Philadelphia International Airport flys over a turret of three 16-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 guns on the fore deck of the Battleship New Jersey.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Published May 20, 2024, 8:53 a.m. ET

The New Jersey has been berthed in Dock #3 - the same dock it was launched from on Dec. 7, 1942 - at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia since it was moved from its home on the Camden Waterfront in March to undergo painting and the preventive maintenance vital for the battleship’s longevity.

The Battleship New Jersey in dry dock at Philadelphia Ship Repair in the Navy Yard Thursday, May 9, 2024. Berthed in Dock #3, the same dock it was launched from on Dec. 7, 1942.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Nearly three football fields long and over 11 stories high, the Battleship New Jersey was the longest battleship ever built.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

While in commission, it was the USS New Jersey (BB-62).Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Workers paint the underside of the hull, near the stern and propellers.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Workers paint a rudder, near the stern and propellers of the Battleship New Jersey.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Workers are under the hull which is being repainted. When ready, the ship will be floated enough to be moved off its supports (right). Then water will be pumped out again then so those previously covered sections of the hull can be painted. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Welders work on a propeller shaft on the underside of the hull. Some of the over 1000 newly-mounted anodes are in a strip at top. The anodes make up a critical part of a ship’s cathodic protection system to prevent the dissimilar metals that make up a ship’s hull from wasting away. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Workers under the battleship in dry dock. One of the last task will be to paint the areas currently under the supports, after the ship is partially re-floated.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

The New Jersey’s history spanned over half the 20th century, from her design in 1938 until 1991.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Battleship CEO Marshall Spevak demonstrates the most popular selfie pose - under the bulbous bow - by visitors on weekend tours of the Battleship New Jersey in dry dock.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Near the propellers at the stern.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

New teak installed on the deck of the Battleship New Jersey while work continues below. Replacement of the deteriorating teak deck began in 2005 and is finishing up while in dry dock.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Spevak illuminates a museum display onboard the Battleship. While in dry dock the interior of the ship has electricity, but is without much lighting. The interpretive panel describes Admiral J. Paul Reason, the Navy’s first African American 4-star Admiral. Before his promotion, he commanded Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1 and Battle Group Romeo from the USS New Jersey and participated in the largest gathering of American and allied warships since World War II. The international training exercise included the battle groups of the New Jersey, Missouri, and four carriers, and ships from the navies of Japan, South Korea, and Canada. It demonstrated to the Soviets the renewed power of the Navy in the Pacific, highlighted by a simultaneous live fire demonstration by the New Jersey and Missouri.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Some of the used anodes removed from the hull of the Battleship New Jersey are for sale in a temporary gift shop at Philadelphia Ship Repair in the Navy Yard. Visitors are able to tour the dry dock on weekends.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Replicas of a “Nuclear Permission to Fire Key” (PTF) found on the Battleship New Jersey are for sale in the gift shop. While it has not been declassified whether or not New Jersey ever carried nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles the ship was able to launch them and had a multi key initiation sequence.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Small bottles of battleship rust are for sale in the gift shop.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

I have photographed at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard many times, even when it was a U.S. Navy base (closed in the 90s). During World War II, 40,000 ship workers built and repaired ships there. Today the city-owned Navy Yard is a large campus with more than 150 companies and some 15,000 people working in a mix of industries. And it’s one of the few dry-docks in the country large enough to handle the New Jersey.

Its proximity to the airport makes it hard not include airplanes taking off and landing in pictures.

While on a tour of the battleship in dry dock last week, reporter Kevin Riordan and I could occasionally hear planes flying above, but in the dock, below the water level of the Delaware River, we couldn’t see them.

My family knows what it’s like to travel with a photographer who always wants to wait for a better - if not decisive- moment to make the right picture. I am aware most people don’t share that patience, so especially while I’m at work, I try really hard not to inconvenience others.

So when our dry dock tour - escorted by the battleship museum CEO - moved topside I had my ears and eyes focused on the sky hoping a passing plane and a part of the ship’s super structure would align.

I was able to quickly move to get under three of the big guns.

The Iowa-class USS New Jersey (BB-62) is the most decorated battleship in Navy history, earning distinction in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and conflicts in the Middle East. The New Jersey’s history spanned over half the 20th century, from its design in 1938 until 1991. It is expected to back in Camden by Independence day.

FILE PHOTO: The USS New Jersey is launched at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard December 7, 1942, on the one year anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The shipyard operated from 1876 until it closed on September 26, 1996 The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), a nonprofit corporation controlled jointly by the city government and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, manages & develops the current Navy Yard.Read morePhiladelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC)

Nathan Vargas is working for the caterers Wednesday, Mar. 20, 2024, preparing for ceremonies as the Battleship New Jersey departs Camden for dry dock maintenance.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Jay Jones (rear), director of operations and Jack Willard, director of marketing and sales for the Battleship New Jersey prepare signage for the departure ceremonies.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

The Battleship New Jersey is on the Camden Waterfront Wednesday, Mar. 20, 2024 as the crew finishes preparations for her departure the following day for historic dry dock maintenance.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

October 18, 1999. The New Jersey transits the Miraflores Locks in Panama City, Panama on Monday The retired battleship will take three days to transit the Panama Canal during its final voyage before it is permanently set to rest as a museum in the state of New Jersey.Read moreTomas van Houtryve / AP

Nov. 11, 1999. The New Jersey leaves the Delaware Memorial Bridge behind as it passes a crowd on the shoreline at Fox State Park, near Wilmington Del., Thursday For the Inq/Read moreTim Shaffer

Nov. 11, 1999: The New Jersey makes its way up the Delaware River. Restoration work was done, and the ship was moved to her permanent berth on the Camden waterfront two years later and opened to the public on September 23, 2001.Read moreSharon Gekoski-Kimmel / Staff Photographer

August 9, 2000: US Navy veteran Frank Larkin (left) of Deptford is greeted by Capt. David McGuigan. USN (retired) and security guard Steve Pribula (right) as he visits the New Jersey with his family. Larkin served in WWII as a naval aviation plane captain in the Pacific.Read moreGerald S. Williams / Staff Photographer

April 20, 2001: Maritime artist Dave Boone has painted on the Delaware River since childhood. Now he is doing volunteer restoration work on the Battleship New Jersey, touching up the detailed paintings on the ship after they were taped-over while the walls were spray-painted.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

November 5, 2001: Richard Castro, 70, of Cherry Hill leads a tour on the Battleship New Jersey, describing the power of the big guns on the rear deck of the ship. Castro is a US Navy veteran from the Korean War era, and many vets, volunteer to work on the ship as a docent.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

June 6, 2012: Kristen Kobley of Strasburg, takes a photo of her husband Tom and daughters Sarah, 14, and Ellen, 10, on the deck of the Battleship New Jersey.Read moreDavid M Warren / Staff Photographer

November 22, 2012: Volunteers who work on the Battleship New Jersey are treated to a Thanksgiving dinner below deck in the ship’s chow hall.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

May 27, 2013: Navy Seaman Ryan Kreider helps toss a wreath from the Battleship New Jersey during a Memorial Day ceremony.Read more

August 6, 2019: National Guard and Air Force National Guard members play on the deck of the Battleship New Jersey, during the Battle of the Branches soccer tournament to celebrate Military Appreciation Week.Read moreTYGER WILLIAMS / Staff Photographer

September.27, 2019: Jadden Kane of Bristol shadow boxes as he warms-up on the deck of the Battleship New Jersey, preparing for his time in the ring durin an amateur boxing event, Battle on the Battleship, held on the ship to raise funds for a recently commissioned statute of Camden boxing legend Jersey Joe Walcott.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

November 11, 2019: US Navy veteran Bill Lydon, 70, helps paint the Battleship New Jersey before a Veteran's Day event.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

January 3, 2020: The Battleship New Jersey is bathed in Eagles green before their NFL Wild Card Round playoff game. They lost, 17-9 to the Seattle Seahawks at the Linc.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer

July 30, 2020: The Battleship New Jersey provides a backdrop to the Ferris Wheel (sanitized and disinfected between users) and a “green' phase” pandemic-reopening version of Summerfest on Penn's Landing.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

November 11, 2020: Jacob Oesterwind, 23, speaks during a Veterans Day ceremony on the Battleship New Jersey, His great uncle, Robert Oesterwind, was killed in action aboard the battleship during the Korean War.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer

December 6, 2020: A social distancing sign, putting "6 feet" into context. on the Battleship New Jersey during the pandemic.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

July 3, 2014 : Matthew Linton of Northeast Philadelphia, who was disabled in the Iraq war while serving in the US Marine Corps, fires the Battleship New Jersey's five-inch portside gun to mark the official start of the 2014 Camden Freedom Festival.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

September 29, 2014. Painters Guilherme Tavares and Lawrence Errara (right) apply Haze Gray, also know as Battleship Gray to the New Jersey.Read moreDavid Swanson / Staff Photographer

July 4, 2019: Forty people from 23 countries recite the oath of allegiance during a naturalization ceremony on the Battleship New Jersey.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

March, 6, 2021: Families follow the green line on tour below deck on the Battleship New Jersey.Read moreTYGER WILLIAMS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

May 21, 2021: West Deptford High School holds its junior-senior prom on the Battleship New Jersey.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

November 20, 2023: Sixers Danuel House (from left), Kenyon Martin Jr., Robert Covington, Jean Marie Biemer and head coach Nick Nurse serve a Thanksgiving dinner to 150 service members and their families on the Battleship New Jersey.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

December 28, 2023: Carte Bruynell, 9, tries out the enlisted sailors bunks as he tours below deck on the Battleship New Jersey with his parents, Cheryl and George of Glassboro.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

June 29, 1948: A trio of tugs, front, and other tugs on either side of the Battleship USS New Jersey, aid the ship along the East River near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, , enroute to Bayonne, N.J., where the battleship is scheduled for retirement in reserve in the "mothball fleet". The Manhattan bridge is in the background. Read moreAnthony Camerano / AP

Nov. 21, 1950: Officers and crew salute during hoisting of the colors at the ceremony recommissioning the USS New Jersey, 45,000-ton battleship, at Naval Supply Depot, Bayonne, N.J.Read moreJohn Rooney / AP

Battleship New Jersey weathering a summer thunderstorm.Read moreLiz Robertson/Staff

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: