The USS Orleck is scheduled to arrive on Jacksonville’s Northbank on Saturday.
The Gearing Class Destroyer is set to arrive at the entrance of the St. Johns River channel around 7 a.m.
The trip downtown will take another four to six hours, putting the ship at the Jacksonville Riverwalk sometime between 11:30 in the morning and 2:30 in the afternoon.
The president of the Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association, Dan Bean, says the Orleck is a mark of Jacksonville’s significance to the U.S. Navy.
"Jacksonville is Florida's number one Navy town. And when you drive across that Main Street Bridge tomorrow afternoon, you're going to know why," Bean said Friday.
NAS Jax is the third-largest naval base in the country.
Smith Maritime of Green Cove Springs sent its tugboat, Elsbeth 3, to tow the vessel from Port Arthur, Texas, to the First Coast.
The destroyer will become the Jacksonville Naval Museum, and plans are to open it to the public in June as part of the city’s bicentennial celebration.
The ship will eventually park in the Jacksonville Shipyards project in downtown.
