On Sunday thousands of Hudson Valley residents turned out to see the WW II destroyer escort the USS Slater make its way down the Hudson River from Albany to its destination at Staten Island where it will undergo repairs.

The USS Slater was built in 1944 and was used to escort and protect convoys of merchant ships from German U-boat attacks while crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

After Germany surrendered the USS Slater returned to New York City for updates and then was assigned to the Pacific Theater to aid in the effort to defeat Japan.

After the war the USS Slater was scheduled to be scrapped but was given to the Greek Navy to fight the spread of communism, an assignment that lasted 40 years. The ship was returned to the United States in 1993 and was transformed into a museum ship, starting this new life parked next to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York City. In 1997 she was moved up to Albany and continued her service as a museum.

The USS Slater will be dry docked in the Caddell Shipyard in Staten Island for repairs, chiefly the restoration of its mast, while ensuring the historical accuracy of her WW II era equipment. This was the same shipyard that performed some restoration work on the ship in 2014.

If all of the work goes well, the USS Slater is expected to be back in Albany for a reopening of the museum on Wednesday, August 5.