USS New Jersey
Vessel History
With the introduction of steam propulsion, the largest navy ships were called “battleships”, adapted from the earlier “line of battle ship”. These ships took the place of ships of the line and would spark a decades-long arms race between nations to build the largest battleships with the largest guns.
While battleships were growing ever larger, navies also started to experiment with aircraft carriers. Between World War I and World War II it was unclear if naval battles would be decided by aircraft carriers or battleships, and each type had its proponents. This debate was firmly put to rest when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor with aircraft carriers, sinking most of the US Pacific battleship fleet on December 7, 1941, a point emphasized with the loss of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse to Japanese aircraft while at sea soon after.
With a few notable exceptions, those actions spelled the end for the usefulness of battleships as major combatants, but since 1939 the United States had been constructing six top-of-the-line battleships in the Brooklyn and Philadelphia Navy shipyards. These battleships became known as the Iowa Class battleships and in addition to massive gun power, also were built to reach a speed of 33 knots so they could hunt down just about any ocean going combatant. This was an improvement over traditional battle ships which were not built for speed, but instead were supposed to meet up somewhere at sea and slug it out at relatively low speeds.
With changing wartime needs, only four of the six Iowa Class battleships were completed; the Iowa, the New Jersey, the Missouri, and the Wisconsin.
New Jersey was built at Philadelphia Navy Shipyard and was finished second in the class in 1942 after the Iowa was completed a few months earlier in the Brookyn Navy Yard.
While the Japanese built larger battleships with larger bore guns, it can be fairly stated the Iowa class battleships were the mightiest ever built.
USS New Jersey saw service in the Pacific during World War II and then, through a remarkable set of circumstances, she served in an additional three conflicts and earned 19 battle and campaign stars, an exceptionally high number of commendations for a battleship, especially considering they were earned over a period of almost 50 years. During those years she probably fired more 16 inch rounds than any other battleship, incurred very little damage in return, never failed a mission, and still holds the speed record for battleships at 35.5 knots. Many navy ships received nicknames and the New Jersey is often referred to as the Big J.
She was finally decommissioned in 1991. In 1999 congress dictated that New Jersey would become a museum ship in New Jersey and two locations vied for the privilege, Bayonne and Camden.
US Navy Captain Joe Azzolina, Monmouth County resident, politician, and businessman, lobbied for Bayonne, but ultimately Camden was chosen as the location for the USS New Jersey Museum, where she is now moored within sight of her birthplace in Philadelphia. Capt. Azzolina stayed involved in the management of the museum until his passing in 2010. In reward for his service to the county, the state, and the country, the new Highlands bridge is named after him.
All four battleships of the Iowa class are now museums. While New Jersey saw the most service, Missouri has the distinction of being the vessel that hosted the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay and can be visited in Pearl Harbor where the war against Japan had started almost 4 years earlier.
Remarkably, despite New Jersey’s important maritime heritage, the Big J was only the second US Navy ship named after the state while other states have had 10 and more US Navy ships named after them. In 2024 a third US Navy ship was named New Jersey, a Virginia class nuclear attack submarine, SSN-796.
The New Jersey was fitted with the largest bore guns ever produced by the United States. Guns barrels wear out during use, so additional barrels are always produced for replacement. These naval guns were also used ashore for harbor defense and two such guns were mounted in what is presently Hartshorne Woods. Those guns were removed after World War II, but presently one of New Jersey's spare 16 inch barrels is installed as a historical display in one of the gun emplacements at Hartshorne.
The model
The model of the USS New Jersey is a modern display model that was the property of Captain Azzolina. It was donated to the Bahrs’ collection by Capt. Azzolina’s son, Joseph Azzolina, Jr.