USS Iowa on way to new home in Southern Calif.

The last line holding the USS Iowa at Pier 3 is dropped from the Port of Richmond on May 26, 2012, in Richmond, Calif. / Karl Mondon,AP Photo/The Contra Costa Times

(AP) SAN FRANCISCO - The USS Iowa has left San Francisco and is on its way to its new home in Southern California.

The battleship was surrounded by pleasure boats and other vessels Saturday as it made its way through San Francisco Bay.

The 887-foot long, 58,000-ton battlewagon is being towed to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, where it will be transformed into an interactive naval museum.

The Iowa was scheduled to leave last Sunday but was delayed because of a storm system. As it turned out, its departure came on the same day as weekend celebrations were under way marking the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary.

Robert Kent, president of the Pacific Battleship Center, the nonprofit organization that has been restoring the ship, told KCBS radio that the delay seemed to work out for the better.

"We know that the delay was for a reason, and what better day to leave than this beautiful Saturday, with the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge occurring at the same time," Kent told the station. "It couldn't be better."

The Iowa, first commissioned in 1943 and again in 1951 and 1984, saw duty in World War II and the Korean War. It took part in escorting tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war before being decommissioned in 1990.

The ship once carried President Franklin Roosevelt to a World War II summit to meet with Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Chiang Kai Shek.

A dark part of the ship's history took place in 1989, when 47 sailors were killed in an explosion in the No. 2 gun turret. After the blast, the Navy alleged that a crewmember caused the explosion as a result of a failed relationship with a male crewmember. A follow-up investigation found the explosion was most likely the result of human error.

The ownership of the ship was transferred this month from the U.S. Navy to the Pacific Battleship Center.

[Mike_in_USA]

So where are code pink, the city supervisors and the other decrepit hippies? where are thieir protests? I guess faced with honor and respect for those who went in harms way and their traditions is just too much for them, they just can't handle that.

[Overruled1]

What bothers me the most of San Francisco supervisors decision to let the Iowa and Missouri go elsewhere is that, the arguement that ships of war should not be associated with a peaceful city as San Francisco, but the city does make revenue from having people visit the old prison on Alcatraz island (a place of incarceration is a tourist attraction?), which to me is an eyesore which should have been destroyed long ago.
I was alive when the prison was active, it was an eyesore then, as it is today.

[tafhdyd]

San Francisco missed another chance to have naval history in it's harbor. They could have had the Missouri many years ago but the transplanted hippy freaks insisted and convinced the off the deep end board of supervisors that San Francisco was a city of peace and they should not have a "war ship" anywhere near the city. The problem is the Missouri had the history of ending the war with Japan and the end of WWII when the surrender of the Empire of Japan was signed on board bringing peace (at least for the time being) to the world.

[Mike_in_USA]

Another problem-the city claimed the rusting hulls were polluting the bay (or a part of it).

[Mike_in_USA]

They want an image of peace? Why not kick out the Coast Guard, the Police for example? Maybe their 'peace' ideals don't make them feel that good?

[Harry1899]

There are already a large number of battleships preserved as museums in the USA - Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin (at Norfolk), North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Missouri (at Pearl Harbor); as well as the Arizona memorial. Ironically, the ship that did more to win the Pacific War than any other, the USS Enterprise (CV-6), went to the scrap heap.