The Cold War

In their 15 years as junkmen in New York, brothers Morris and Julius Lipsett had handled such big jobs as scrapping Manhattan's Second Avenue El, the old approaches to the Brooklyn Bridge, and the liner Normandie (TIME, Oct. 14, 1946). So they expected no trouble when they bought the decommissioned battleship New Mexico for $381,000 (original cost in 1917: $17,348,200). But last week as the New Mex, shorn of her power plant and with holes bored in her big guns, was towed from Boston toward Newark, trouble hit her like a spread of torpedoes amidships.

The Lipsett brothers had a deal with the Navy to moor the New Mex at its Newark dock while they cut her up. But as the battleship approached, the city of Newark declared a blockade.

Duffy v. Dreadnought. Newark, which recently agreed to lease its port facilities to the Port of New York Authority (TIME, Nov. 3) for an $11,000,000 development program, thought the New Mex would block the program by tying up pier space. So Newark's Mayor Vincent Joseph Murphy, egged on by the local press, ordered out the city's two fire boats, Michael P. Duffy and William J. Brennan, to block the port's narrow entrance.

The tiny (30-ft.) boats duly began patrolling the channel, squirting their 20 nozzles as ominously as they could for news photographers. But the New Mexico did not arrive. In rough weather off the Long Island coast the tugs cast off her tows, and for a few hours the New Mex strayed alone on the Atlantic. Finally the Coast Guard found the battleship wallowing helplessly in heavy seas and the tugs got lines aboard once more.

As Lipsett, Inc. arranged for nine other tugs and a Coast Guard cutter for the trip to the graveyard, Newark, spurred by all the publicity it was getting, appealed to retired Admiral Halsey, a New Jersey native, for advice. "Bull" Halsey, a carrier man, who did not have much use for battleships anyhow, replied: "I don't known a damn thing about patrolling channels." The London News Chronicle joined the fun. It cabled to find out if a revolution was impending. Replied Newark: "Let there be no dancing in the streets of London. This is no civil war [but] a battle with a private corporation which wants to make a junkyard of our seaport."

Negotiated Peace. The Navy, which is trying to speed up the scrapping of decommissioned ships, thought none of this funny. Neither did the Lipsetts, who stood to lose $4,000 for every day of delay, nor the scrap-starved steelmakers.

At week's end, the Lipsetts agreed to a truce. While the New Mexico was kept clear of Newark's port, all parties met to discuss a negotiated peace. Unless some other berth can be found for the junking job, the New Mex will probably get into Newark, but with a shorter time--six to eight months--allowed to scrap her. And the Lipsetts will have to find another place to scrap the two other battleships, Wyoming and Idaho, which they have bought from the Navy.

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