Museum's ship comes in
June 03,2004
TIMMI TOLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF

It's been a long haul - or rather, a long push.

After traveling more than 3,000 miles and spending more than 30 days at sea, a World War II-era landing ship medium - the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas' newest artifact - is safely moored at its temporary home on Mile Hammock Bay at Camp Lejeune.

Joe Houle, the museum's director, said the ship arrived at 6:50 a.m. Wednesday after being delayed for 24 hours off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C. A plane crash there had closed the Intracoastal Waterway, he said.

"Once she got past Myrtle Beach, she came sailing right through," Houle said.

At 203 feet long and 35 feet wide, the LSM-45 is unable to move on its own power. It was pushed by tug boat from Freedom Park, Okla., down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, through New Orleans to the coast of Louisiana and around the Florida Keys. It made a brief stop in Charleston, S.C., where Houle and a group of volunteers dressed the ship for the final voyage to North Carolina.

The ship was donated by the Amphibious Ship Museum, which also paid the cost of the voyage.

"She pulled in here like she was in 100 feet of water," said Houle, who noted that the ship, which has a draft of 5 feet, is sitting in about eight feet of water at Mile Hammock. "There were no problems whatsoever."

Commissioned July 28, 1944, the LSM-45 housed 54 enlisted men and four officers. It was used to shuttle supplies, ammunition and equipment ashore after the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

The LSM-45 is the last remaining ship in the United States still configured for its original purpose - during the ship's era, the Navy had approximately 500 LSMs in use.

It was decommissioned on March 27, 1947. Eleven years later, the ship was transferred to the Greek Navy. In 1998, The Amphibious Ship Museum refurbished the LSM-45 and moved it to Freedom Park.

The LSM eventually will be moved to a permanent home at the yet-to-be-built museum, which will be located on three acres near the Jacksonville Police Department. Houle said that move is still 12 to 18 months away and that there are several logistical issues to be addressed - one of the biggest being how to move the nearly 500-ton vessel from one side of U.S. 17 to the other.

Waterway travel is a concern due to a narrow passage on the New River that is blocked by two bridges. Theories of land travel have included the use of a house mover or skid. Houle said David Oswalt, of J.E. Oswalt and Sons in Batesburg, S.C., will soon meet with the museum's board of directors to discuss the move.

In the meantime, Houle is recruiting a team of volunteers to begin repairs on the ship. The museum hopes to have the ship ready for public viewing in 30 days, he said.

For more information about the LSM-45, call the museum at 937-0033.