She's still here, and she will be for generations. That's what's important. Paint is easy, keeping the water out is not. Y'all are doing amazing. Keep it up!

Shes in pretty good shape for her age. And atleast she exists in any condition

You don't need to apologize for the shape of the ship. She's a grand old lady and sometimes you gotta make a mess to clean a mess.

Nothing wrong with a little "character"- given the cost of just keeping the ship above the water, you guys have done a great job providing tours this entire time (until you closed obviously). I took every tour you offered and saw the unrestored parts of the ship and felt privileged to do so. I don't think Howard Carter entered King Tut's tomb and said "ewww- there's sand everywhere". The Texas is a national treasure and we love her as such. Whatever improvements can be made will be welcome, but as soon as you open back up, we will be there.

I can’t even explain how frustrating it is to see our Navy decommissioning perfectly good ships and using them as targets instead of modernizing them. It’s inexcusable. The Navy tries to claim that they’re creating artificial reefs. What a load of rubbish that is. These ships are all being sunk down in really deep waters where sunlight doesn’t penetrate. They’re down, typically around 15,000 20,000 feet deep. The real reason they’re being sunk that deep is because they’re not cleaning up all the toxins that these ships are full of. There’s no excuse for sinking these ships at all. We’ve sunk ships with barely 30 years of service, yet our Air Force is flying Bombers older than I am!!! Tough question here, but would you rather be sailing on a 40 year old ship or flying on a 70 year old plane???

Big love from London here I can't wait to come and visit the Texas. Coming from the UK it's such a shame that none of the the Royal Navy's Battleships never got saved from the scrap yard, especially HMS Warspite! So to see the last dreadnought class ship in real life will be very surreal for me. The closest we've got in the UK is the WW2 Light Cruiser HMS Belfast which has a great story (like the Texas she served in the Arctic Convoys and fought in one of the last big gun battles in 1943 in the Battle of North Cape), it's a fancisting visit but it's not the same as one of the big battleships. You're doing amazing work, keep it up!

There is nothing wrong with what I see. You are taking care of a wonderful piece of history. Keep up the great work!

I can smell this video……. And I miss it

Ryan sent me here...

i don't care what she looks like she's a beutiful battle ship!! you all are going to fix her so it's all good!!👍🖖😉

Having served in the United States Navy from 1983 until 2003, I find this ship to be absolutely fascinating!!! She’s the only dreadnaught still afloat. No doubt, at her age, keeping her afloat isn’t an easy task. She needs to be moored in fresh water. It’s obvious that she’s in need of having the entire outer hull replaced, and replaced soon. Otherwise, the cost of saving her will only increase exponentially as time slips by. She’s a national treasure and should be getting maintained as such. Obviously, that means that the federal government needs to get involved and give her a complete top to bottom, inside and out, restoration back to her original glory. Then dock her where she’s not going to be subjected to salt water corrosion. It’s scary to even think about how much of her hull and supporting frames have turned into flakes of rust. There’s a whole lot of this ship that’s simply deteriorated away into power as the salt atmosphere keeps right on eating away at her. Obviously if she had a full crew being able to maintain her daily she’d be in much better condition, but that too, would be prohibitively expensive. But there’s no excuse why, as a country, we can’t afford to properly maintain the few battleships, WWII aircraft carriers, and other historic museum ships that we have left. Personally, I feel that at least one ship out of every class built should have been saved for historical purposes.

When I was little back in the late 60's and we would visit there all those hatches and rooms were open and we would have the most awesome games of hide and seek throughout the ship. It was a blast going up and down those vertical hatches and finding all these rooms to hide in. The engine room was a blast too. Most of the ship was accessible back in those days.

Not bad for 100 year old ship.

You have no reason to be embarrassed. You’re doing your best. It’s not easy maintaining a ship, especially one so old and large. Keep up the good work!!!

Hi Travis,

I wish I lived closer to volunteer to help clean and paint. I don’t have money to spare but I would happily volunteer my time to help if I was local. Awesome work keeping her afloat and safe!

I prefer to see this kind of condition…it’s real. Cleaned-up and pretty, sure, but old and original…priceless. I’d love to see the ship from the bilge to the mast from the fore peak to the stern, look in every space, every locker, every room - clean or as-is. The more original the closer we get to her soul.

I think we all agree here. Your efforts care concerns safety are well regarded.

I first set foot on this ship in the late 50s.

Given her Age she is good shape.