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The USS Zuni/USCGC Tamaroa, circa 1947-48.
The only surviving Navy ship from the invasion of Iwo Jima that was later transformed into the Coast Guard rescue cutter depicted in the movie “The Perfect Storm” is on the verge of being scrapped, according to maritime history buffs trying to save the vessel.
The Zuni Maritime Foundation in Virginia has been looking to raise $500,000 to put the 205-foot ship in dry dock so that its hull can be repaired, but fundraising efforts have fallen short.
The vessel was bought by an unnamed benefactor in 1994 who had hoped to restore the ship and turn it into a museum.
Since then, a dedicated volunteer crew of former Navy sailors and Coast Guard members has restored the vessel’s interior and much of its exterior. But after leaks in the hull this spring the Coast Guard deemed it a hazard to navigation, meaning it can't be moved.
Ownership of the vessel is now being transferred to the head of a salvage yard, foundation officials told NBCNews.com.
The new owner, Tim Mullane, of the American Marine Group salvage operation in Norfolk, Va., has allowed the ship to be temporarily moored at his dock but has said fixing the ship’s hull may well cost twice the $500,000 goal of the foundation.
It remains unclear how long the historic vessel will be allowed to be moored at American Marine.
"It’s hearbreaking," Tom Robinson, foundation director, told NBCNews.com. "Ten years of effort down the drain. The ship is ready to be scrapped."
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However, Harry Jaeger, operations chief for the foundation, told NBCNews.com he hasn’t given up hope.
Volunteers aboard the USS Zuni/USCGC Tamaroa in Virginia.
Jaeger, who has spent countless volunteer hours leading the restoration of the ship and just came back from Vallejo, Calif., to obtain World War II vintage pilot house controls for it, said Mullane has shown a personal interest in preserving the ship and even led efforts to plug the leak that threatened to sink it.
"We’re trying to be optimistic when the new owner takes over," Jaeger said. "But business is business."
Jaeger agreed that Mullane may well be forced to scrap the vessel or sink it as an artificial reef. (Mullane was not immediately available for comment to NBCNews.com.)
The ship was known as the Zuni when it earned four battle stars for World War II service as an ocean salvage tug. "It rescued sailors at Iwo Jima and saved ships damaged by torpedoes," Jaeger said.
The Zuni was decommissioned by the Navy after the war in 1946, transferred to the Coast Guard and renamed the Tamaroa, the name of a fierce Native American tribe. The “Tam” was home-ported at Staten Island and Governors Island, N.Y., from 1946-1985 before being moved to New Castle, N.H.
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As a Coast Guard cutter, the ship carried rescuers on a daring mission in 1991 to aid three people from the sailboat Satori in 40-foot seas and 80-knot winds some 75 miles off Nantucket island during what was known as the “No Name Storm of Halloween,” according to a Coast Guard history of the ship. Ten minutes after that ordeal was finished, the Tamaroa was called to save Air National Guard crewmen whose plane was downed during a rescue of their own. That rescue earned the cutter and crew a commendation.
Author Sebastian Junger chronicled the drama of that day in his book “The Perfect Storm,” which later became a movie of the same name starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.
The nonprofit Zuni Maritime Foundation, located in Richmond, Va., had hoped to turn the ship into a museum and tourist attraction that would teach visitors the history of the 69-year-old vessel. It had also expected to make the vessel available to Sea Cadets, Sea Scout and other groups of young sailors.
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You can donate to the Zuma Maritime Foundation here:
Sweet, Newsvine. You don't say new users can't mention links until after the fact.
Okay so instead, click on the link to the Zuma Foundation that's in the 2nd paragraph of this article & once on their website, click on "Support the Ship" in the left-hand menu.
http://www.zunitamaroa.org/docs/support-the-ship.html#donation
Added the link for you.
Why would they spend so much effort on the interior and ignore the rusting hull?
Because restoring the hull means moving it into a drydock. That is where the real expense comes into play.
maybe Obama care will step forward with some money...what a waste...it's a WW11 relic and should be saved.how about the movie company that made alot of money from the movie give some back....or Clooney himself kick some in....just trying to help.....
or maybe Romoney can take just a small percentage of the tax-free money he has squirrelled away in his many off-shore accounts and donate to the cause.
Better yet, hows about Romoney take some of the cash he has saved by not paying any taxes the past 10 years and donate that to the cause.
Problem solved - Plan A and a Plan B to keep the Zuni afloat and preserved for history.
It's a shame you know nothing of our tax code and think that money held in off-shore accounts isn't subject to US taxation. But I suppose this sad fact is easily explained by the worse fact...you are just a partisan hack led around by the likes of Harry Reid. Otherwise why would you even try to pretend that Romney hasn't paid taxes in 10 years.
I don't really mind that liberals see the world so differently than me. After all, we are different people, and so different perspectives should be welcomed. But you, sir, are worse than merely useless. You are the rabble easily roused. The mob easily incited. I don't know what there is we could ever agree upon given it appears you aren't the person I would need to agree with anyhow. Your puppet masters are.
Just despicable.
ouch rich, tell us how you really feel. LOL
It would appear to me, Rich, that 3022003 is no more a partisan hack than you are illiterate. Nowhere did 3022003 write that Romney paid no taxes. And, in no speech or news release did Harry Reid claim Romney paid no taxes.
Seems to me that you and 3022003 are kindred spirits: puffing your respective partisan chests and expelling nothing but hyperbolic boolsheet.
Just despicable.
"Better yet, hows about Romoney take some of the cash he has saved by not paying any taxes the past 10 years and donate that to the cause."
I'm pretty sure he says that Romney paid no taxes...wait, I'll read it again just to make sure...oh, there it is. Talk about illiterate. And really? Harry Reid didn't say that either? Do you live under a rock?
Ok I'll fix it how about "Romney paying his fair share instead of the same amount a middle class American pays." If he has nothing to be ashamed about he should release a few more years and prove he has nothing to hide.
Is there anything that happens in the universe that won't get you F-ck heads argueing about Obama and Romney ? There are alot of things in this world that have nothing to do with American politics. Thank God
It's a shame everyone has to try and make this a political statement.
Here is a political statement. Obamney or Robama can go have relations with themselves. I'm voting for someone that cares more about the country than they do a political party.
It's adorable how people try to turn something as simple as this story into politics. Idiots never cease to amaze me, right or left.
They neglected the first rule of ship restoration: start from the bottom.
Honestly, we can't save every historic item. Facts are, about 100 people actually care about the ship today and they will pass on one day. After that, it would be scrapped anyways.
Not if it was drydocked and setup as a paying museum.
.
Turn it in to the scrap heap. One infamous sar case doesn't make this vessel worth saving. These things never pay for themselves...and the number of ex-Navy/Coast Guard men and women who served in her are dwindling and scattered to the winds. A ship is only alive when she is commissioned and crewed.
~ retired Coastie.
What a Great time for the President to step up, have a $35,000 a plate dinner to raise funds. Think of all the VOTES this could BUY!! OMG what a missed opportunity!
Or they could just ask Clooney and Wahlberg for a donation. They have lots of money and seem to be willing to throw it around.
Just drop that boat off in my east pasture and I'll make a guest house out of it. For free, of course.
yes destroy it ,and move on if we save any thing from the past telling where we came from or who we are the corporations .and current people in charge wont be able to kill the rest of us for profit ,and continue thier destruction of earth as the planet is a threat to corporate profit . Allow corporations you will die.
Take a few photos and scrap it. Its useby date has passed. If it was fixed it would be another item linked to the tax payer. Most of the guys who sailed on it are fast aproaching their useby date sadly, then there is NOTHING left of value in it.
You need to remember that if it is saved, the government will put an annual repair bill in the millions, and cream off the $ for Barry and Mich.
You're wrong. The government has nothing to do with this now. It is privately owned now.
Oliver Wendell Holmes had something to say about old ships and "tattered ensigns."
History is something I always thought was very important but from what I've seen posted here its not. Once its gone then people will say why didn't they save it? Always seems to happen that way but if all people care about is the future now then so be it and good luck because we'll all need it.
If you want the link to donate or even to read more about this here it is,
#donation
A bit sad, but there are a bunch of boats/ships from that era that all had historic adventures. Do the smart thing and recycle - either the steel, or as a new life providing marine creatures with habitat. Tough economic times.
i remember the "TAM" from governors island ny in the early 80's late 70's she almost sank at the pier too. She earned the dubious honor of almost becoming the coast guards first submarine. Still too bad she can't be fixed and turned into a museum.
put it high and dry on land as a museum
Instead of pi$$ing away 5.2B $$$ on the defunct USPS, this is something our government should get behind, it's part of history and needs to be preserved...
You mean the "defunct" USPS that's forced to pay $5 billion per year to prefund retirement benefits 70 years in the future for people who haven't been born yet? That's a payment that no company or organization, public or private, needs to do.
But hey, I know how much you Republicans hate the free market, so I'm not surprised.
It's not just the Republicans that came up with the idea of prefunding retirement in the USPS for people that are not yet employed by them, but yeah, the USPS has been handicapped by Republicans and Democrats alike. They are not allowed to raise prices yet have to come up with a certain amount of money, good luck USPS. Our politicians have set the USPS up for failure.
A private citizen or group of citizens should buy the ship and name it the USS Obama and donate it to the US Navy so they can torpedo it off the coast of Florida. At least it might attract some fish. It's a proven fact that fish have the same IQ as Obama voters. I'm using Harry Reid's source for that information so it must be true.
I hope they keep her.
It would be sad to destroy this boat, and its history.
I would love to be able to walk upon it, and wonder what it must of been like back in the day.
So many images of the past are within this boat, and it has many stories too tell.
Don't sink it.
As someone who works with old boats, it is sad but true, you cannot save them all. Take the main objects that tell her story out of her, send them to maritime museums that make sense and then scuttle her. It is the honorable thing to do and you still save her story. Ship museums, especially military, are not sustainable most of the time unless they are large carriers and even those have trouble. This has nothing to do with Obama or Romney, it is just the way life is.
It seems like the Tam is not the only one. Being a regular visitor to Gloucester and Latitude 43, I remember boarding the Lady Grace (aka Andrea Gail in the movie the Perfect Storm and sister ship) on several occasions. I believe that she had an onboard fire but that it was being renovated. I understand that Legal Seafood had originally purchased her as well. It would be great if they could renovate her and put her back out for day trips up and down the coast from Gloucester. Maybe one of these days, they will find the original somewhere.
Old ships and old sailors sad to see them go.
First rule of auto restoration, start with the frame and body. They should have spent their first money on the hull and they would have an easier time getting donations to fix the rest. You can't save them all, some have to be donors for other ships that can be deemed sea-worthy. They got the parts to fix this one up from other rusting hulks, perhaps that is what this one is meant to do. But good luck to them. I admire the effort.
The government could care less about military history. They killed all of the Navy ship naming traditions so the politicians could name them after themselves. We waste billions and can't pay to preserve a national treasure like this. Other famous ships have gone to the scrap heap also. But the guv can fund Acorn and a lot of other subversive leftist entities. It sucks.
yes, how about Hollywood and/or Clooney chipping in some money?? They certainly made enough off the movie and this could make the difference as to whether the boat is sunk or sold for scrap....
I agree..........Clooney is big on taxing other people. Maybe he should put some money back into America for a change instead of everywhere else. After all, it's American ticket buyers that made him wealthy.