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Old Man River News - A WWII Ship is Seen Again on the Mississippi River in St. Louis

From lakes to rivers to oceans to streams - we love and are intirgued by all waterways. We found this find interesting on Old Man River. The USS Inaugural, an admirable class minesweeper ship that was in the Pacific front end of World War II has surfaced.


The Inaugural was a part of the Battle of Okinawa. It searched the ocean for underwater mines and occasionally fired at enemy ships. It cleared 82 mines and won 2 battles.

After the war was over, the ship sat for nearly two decades. Then it sat as a museum in St. Louis in 1968. In 1993, the Mississippi River flooded and took the ship and it sank into the river. The river levels are low again this year and the ship has made it's reappearance.


Unfortunately, the ship can’t be restored to become a museum again. There have been plans to scrap what remains, but because of the fluctuating river levels it makes this complicated.


Video of the Inaugural in the Mississippi.

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