USS NEW JERSEY

The Big J is One of Three Iowa-Class Battleships That’s Now a Museum

- Peter Suciu

In recent years, the city of Camden, New Jersey, has seen a significant decline in violent crime and has undergone a momentous redevelopment effort. While it’ll likely never be known for tourism, Camden’s waterfront has three notable attractions including an outdoor amphitheater, an aquarium, and best of all for the history buff, the USS New Jersey, one of the largest World War II battleships to be preserved as a museum ship.

Known as the “Big J” or “Black Dragon,” she was the most decorated battleship to have served in the U.S. Navy and is among the largest warships ever built.

HISTORY OF THE BIG J

Well before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy saw the clouds of war were on the horizon and that there’d be a need for a “fast battleship” that could take on the increasing might of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Laid down in 1940, the USS New Jersey (BB-62) was launched on December 7, 1942 — just a year after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Even as the war highlighted the potential of aircraft carriers over the massive battle wagons, the Big J played a crucial role in the Pacific “island-hopping” campaign.

New Jersey was also part of a new breed of American battleships. Commissioned in May 1943, she was one of six of the fast capital ships that were ordered, and one of the four that were constructed. They include the lead ship of her class, the USS Iowa (BB61), along with sister ships USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin (BB-64). Two additional ships, the planned Illinois and Kentucky, were laid but canceled, with both hulls scrapped at the end of the war.