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USS Orleck set to relocate to Jacksonville Shipyards

The USS Orleck will be moving down the St. Johns River, where it was supposed to moor initially.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Jacksonville City Council decided the USS Orleck will be on the move.

The Orleck is currently moored along the St. Johns River near the Main Street Bridge.

It won't be moving far - the council unanimously agreed to an emergency authorization to move it to the Shipyards between TIAA Bank Field and Berkman Plaza.

Crews will spend the next four months working on the pier and relocating the ship.

Have you stepped on board the USS Orleck yet? First Coast News took the tour through history and learned some stories that may surprise you.

Hundreds of people were on this ship at once so you can imagine there are a lot of rooms and they're not that big. Ship Manager Craig Bernat says there are reports of around 380 people at one point and they "hot racked," where one person gets out of bed and the other gets in.

One of the first rooms Bernat goes to is the officers' state rooms.

"This bunk was actually removed and taken to help film the movie Greyhound with Tom Hanks," Bernat said. "This would be the bunk you see him sleeping in except Tom was too tall for this so they made an exact replica of this."

The USS Orleck may feel like a maze. It's one with obstacles when it comes to carrying dinner.

Lieutenant Joseph Orleck, who the ship is named after, was officially reported missing in action in 1943, but according to Bernat, his mother never found out.

"His wife and sister never told his mother that he was deceased because she was very elderly and frail and they didn't want it to kill her," Bernat said. "So what they did is over the years, wrote letters from him to her."

There's so much to explore on the USS Orleck. 

Step inside and step back into history.

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