New York ? The USS Intrepid, the aircraft carrier that survived World War II bomb and kamikaze attacks, got stuck in the mud Monday in the Hudson River as tugboats tried to pull it from its berth.

The ship – a huge floating military museum that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists a year – was supposed to be towed across the river to a dry dock in Bayonne, N.J., for a $60 million renovation.

Six tugs pulled with a combined 30,000 horsepower but moved the Intrepid only about 15 feet. Not even an unusually high tide could free the 27,000-ton, 872-foot-long ship from the ooze.

“We had the sun, the moon and the stars in alignment, and it was just a very disappointing day for us,” said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

White said he was unsure whether officials would try again to move the ship, or refurbish the carrier where it sits. The ship was not blocking the Hudson’s busy shipping lanes.

The next high tide is Dec. 6, but that will be about a foot lower than Monday’s, White said.

“We were able to move her 15 feet, and then she came to a halt. We tried to add more power with another tugboat but we couldn’t wiggle her free,” said Jeffrey McAllister, the chief pilot of the tugboat operation.

Tugboats pull on the USS Intrepid in the Hudson River at New York City. The legendary aircraft carrier failed to budge Monday as powerful tugboats fought to pull it free to tow the floating museum downriver for a 0 million overhaul. The mission was scrubbed after it was determined that the carrier's four giant propellers on its stern were anchored too deep in the silt to move it out.

The Intrepid has been moored at a pier on Manhattan’s West Side for 24 years, during which time silt accumulated as deep as 17 feet around its keel. The decommissioned ship no longer has engines, but it still has its four propellers, each about 15 feet across, and they became stuck in the mud.

Crews had removed 600 tons of water from the Intrepid’s ballast tanks to give the ship added buoyancy, and dredges removed 15,000 cubic yards of mud to create a channel from dockside to deeper water.

Elected officials, veterans who served on the Intrepid and others had waited on the flight deck for the beginning of the five-mile journey down the river.