USS Cairo recovered from the Mississippi, her hull is rotted, but In theory it would be possible to rebuild her hull (OK build a new one and replace the old one completely) then have the rest of the ship (the good metal parts) mounted on the new hullrobert132 wrote:saber964 wrote:MAD-4 - What Ironclad? Are you talking about the turret, engine and other bits and pieces recovered from the Monitor?
Precedence - At Pearl Harbor, the USS Cassin and USS Downs were in Dry Dock #1 with USS Pennsylvania, the Battleship got out with little more than a scratch and was sent to Seattle for a quick refit, the Cassin and Downs were not so lucky, both of them were heavily hit and knocked off their pylons, both hulls were wrecked, then flooded when the Pennsylvania was evacuated. The US Navy built 2 brand new hulls from scratch in California, all the fittings (guns engines etc...) for both ships were salvaged from the wrecks, transported by freighter to California, and systematically installed into the new hulls. the two ships went on to fight the Japanese - not as "new" ships but just "repaired" the old hulls were scraped - so there is precedence for this - the hull can be replaced and it's still the "same" ship. (this would go for Texas too, if someone wanted to restore her to service - at high expense
but do-able).
Cairo's a warship and a "Museum ship" so that counts too.