Battleship Iowa to become museum

SAN FRANCISCO – The USS Iowa has left San Francisco and is on its way to its new home in Southern California.

The battleship was surrounded by pleasure boats and other vessels Saturday as it made its way through San Francisco Bay.

The 887-foot long, 58,000-ton battlewagon is being towed to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, where it will be transformed into an interactive naval museum.

The Iowa, first commissioned in 1943 and again in 1951 and 1984, saw duty in World War II and the Korean War. It took part in escorting tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war before being decommissioned in 1990.

A dark part of the ship’s history took place in 1989, when 47 sailors were killed in an explosion in the No. 2 gun turret. An investigation found the explosion was most likely the result of human error.