Historic tugboat at North Little Rock museum getting restored

Boat at NLR museum being restored

The Navy tug Hoga was in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, during Japan’s attack on the U.S. fleet there. The boat is one of the main attractions of the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock.
The Navy tug Hoga was in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, during Japan’s attack on the U.S. fleet there. The boat is one of the main attractions of the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock.

Visitors wanting to take a more complete tour of the historic Hoga tugboat at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock will be able to see more of the boat by summer if the remaining restoration goes as planned.

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A group walks around the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock on Friday morning, checking out the World War II Navy tug Hoga.

The Hoga, which survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, joined the maritime museum a little over a year ago. Only the topside of the boat has been open for tours while federal agencies approve any needed work inside the boat.

An evaluation of work required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency is expected to be complete after the first of the year, said Greg Zonner, executive director of the museum that's along the Arkansas River in North Little Rock's downtown riverfront. The analysis will clear the way for the remaining restoration work to start, he said.

The evaluation report will list any asbestos, lead paint or other now-banned materials that need to be removed, he said. Because the Hoga, after its wartime service, was a fireboat in Oakland, Calif., until the early 1990s, much of that removal likely has been done, Zonner said.

"Oakland did a pretty good job from what I can tell," Zonner said in a recent interview. "Most of what we will have to deal with is the lead paint.

"When we open in May for the summer, we should have the main deck, the main level [crew's mess, officer's stateroom] and the pilothouse open," he added. "Just not the engine room. There's still a lot of work to do down there. The engine room will be a couple-of-years process."

North Little Rock acquired ownership of the Hoga in 2005, beating out four other groups from across the nation, including Honolulu, to take possession of the boat for restoration and preservation. Because of naval transit requirements and lack of affordable transport opportunities, it took more than 10 years for the boat to be transported from the Pacific Coast to North Little Rock.

The Hoga, whose crew fought fires and rescued survivors during and after the attack on Pearl Harbor, is a National Historic Landmark.

It arrived in North Little Rock just before the 2015 Pearl Harbor remembrance day. Because of it, the maritime museum has the distinction of displaying vessels from the beginning and end of the United States' involvement in World War II. The Razorback submarine, the museum's centerpiece since 2004, was present in Tokyo Bay for Japan's official surrender Sept. 2, 1945.

The two historic boats, and the research and educational opportunities available through the museum's collections, likely will be more noticeable in city-related ads and promotions starting in 2017.

This month, the North Little Rock City Council approved placing the museum under the supervision of the city Parks and Recreation Department and making museum staff members city employees.

The museum has been operating as an independent nonprofit and has been overseen by a board of directors that led fundraising efforts for projects such as the Hoga's transit to North Little Rock. The city has budgeted $150,000 for the museum's operation the past two years and will again in 2017, only now the funds will pass through the Parks Department.

City Parks Director Terry Hartwick said that while the museum's daily operations will stay the same -- outside of possibly extending its hours -- making the museum profitable through added exposure and events is a goal.

The Pearl Harbor 75th anniversary commemoration Dec. 7 at the museum, now the state's official remembrance event location, had about 1,300 attendees, according to city Convention and Visitors Bureau figures compiled after the event.

"I've got ideas," Hartwick said recently. "I've always been pretty decent at raising money. I can foresee us going after bigger events such as larger submariner events, larger Navy events. The sky's the limit.

"The biggest challenge will be to get it to be able to stand on its own [financially]," he said. "Ultimately, I'd like to see it be self-sustaining. That's the biggest thing I could try to do."

The museum already consistently hosts school groups, birthday parties and once-a-week rentals so overnight groups can stay on the submarine, Zonner said.

The museum had 21,161 visitors in 2015 and 26,878 this year, according to museum figures released Tuesday. Groups (mostly from schools), special events, overnights, etc., accounted for 6,511 of those visitors in 2015 and 9,197 this year.

"If you called right now to schedule an overnight, April 1 would be the first week we're not booked," Zonner said.

"One night a week is all we can do because we have to have it staffed. It takes three people to run an overnight, and we only have five people here," only three of which are full-time employees, he said.

Having two historic war vessels in North Little Rock could make the museum a bigger tourism draw than it has been, with more promotion that can work hand in hand with other tourist venues in central Arkansas, Hartwick said. Visitors traveled to the museum from all 50 states each of the past two years and as many as 83 countries in 2015.

The Parks Department already works closely with the North Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau to promote recreational and sports events, Hartwick said. Having the Hoga and the Razorback should "bring more people into our city, into our parks, into our restaurants and into our hotels."

While the City Council moved the museum under the Parks and Recreation Department, it avoided designating the museum as a "park." The reason is to avoid any restrictions for future use or development if the city makes changes someday, Mayor Joe Smith. All museum property, including its riverfront land and the two vessels, were already city assets.

"We do not want it to be in the 'parks system' because we don't want the property to be tied up if we receive any federal parks grants," Smith explained recently. "If we want to build something else, our hands wouldn't be tied like they would if we have taken an outdoor grant for it.

"So, it's not really becoming parkland. It's just going to be park-managed," he said.

Zonner agreed that the move is good for the museum, even if little does change in its operation.

"The only change, as far as I can see it, is in the management," Zonner said. "Not what we do and not how we do it. One thing that has been missing has been marketing."

Even with the limited marketing so far, Smith said, the maritime museum has become not only a military memorial but a destination for tourists. And he wants the city to take advantage of the uniqueness of showcasing two World War II vessels.

"We're serving a lot of kids, and we're serving a lot of tourists," Smith said. "If you look at the map they have at the museum, we know we're getting people from all over the world to visit the memorial we have and who are enjoying the museum."

A Section on 12/26/2016

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