A museum ship of the WWII that remained on dry land due to a drop in the level of a river

@ElentirENG ES 11·05·2022 · 22:43 0

A long drought in the Midwest of the United States has caused a historic drop in the flow of the Mississippi River, affecting a warship.

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USS Kidd (DD-661) World War II is a Fletcher-class destroyer, a type of ship of which 175 units were built, including the Spanish destroyers "Lepanto", "Almirante Ferrándiz", "Almirante Valdés", "Alcalá Galiano" and "Jorge Juan", the five scrapped in the 1980s. The USS Kidd fought in World War II, participating in the Battle of Okinawa, and in the Korean War. It was definitively withdrawn from service in the US Navy in 1964, passing to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

The Kidd was fortunate to be one of three Fletcher-class destroyers selected by the US Navy to serve as memorial ships, along with The Sullivans and Cassin Young. The Kidd was assigned to the State of Louisiana, being taken to Baton Rouge in 1982 to be converted into a museum, being the only ship of her class to be preserved as she was in the Second World War. World War. Because of the fluctuations of the Mississippi River, some blocks were built so that the ship rests on them when the river drops in level, while the ship floats when the river goes down faster.

Precisely, the recent drought in the area has lowered the flow of the Mississippi River to its lowest level in 30 years, leaving the USS Kidd on dry land. The YouTube channel Third Coast Drone published a few days ago some impressive images of the ship as you can see it right now:

You can see some screenshots of the video below, as a preview. Here we see an overhead shot of the ship taken from a drone:

An image of the stern of the ship, showing us its port propeller. On the deck we can see the depth charge launch ramp on the port side (it has another one on the starboard side) and two of its five turrets with 127 mm guns.

An image showing the structure on which the boat rests when the river level is very low. The rest of the year, the boat floats normally.

Another image of the stern, showing the starboard propeller. Here you can see the two depth charge launch ramps better.

An image of the USS Kidd from the starboard bow. In the background is the Horace Wilkinson Bridge.