Famed WWII carrier, battle survivor-turned-museum ship, faces new peril

Once it was Japanese torpedoes and kamikaze suicide planes. Then, the threat of the wrecking ball. Now, it is money _ or the lack of it _ that could imperil the future of the USS Intrepid.

Nineteen months after tugboats pried it from the mud at its Hudson River pier in New York City and towed it away for a much-needed renovation, the World War II aircraft carrier needs a sizable infusion of cash to resume its postwar career as a floating military museum.

If all goes according to plan, the ship will be brought back in early October and formally reopened to the public on Nov. 11.

That depends on finding the wherewithal to complete the job that was …