Retired Navy Capt. David McGuigan resigned this week as president of the Home Port Alliance, the group that is turning the Battleship New Jersey into a floating museum on Camden's Waterfront.

McGuigan, who has served on the board since July 1998, wrote a letter this week to Joseph Balzano, the board's s s secretary, citing personal reasons for leaving the post. He wrote that the job has been "time-consuming and intense."

The resignation is the third in the past five weeks from board members of the group. Anne Duvall, an aide to state Sen. John Matheussen, R-Gloucester, and Linda Hayes, a capital-grants specialist for the Delaware River Port Authority, also cited personal reasons and the time commitment required for the battleship effort in their resignations.

McGuigan, who was instrumental in getting the USS New Jersey returned to the Delaware River, was praised by retired Rear Adm. Thomas Siegenthaler, the group's executive director.

"He invested every bit of his time and energy and and and successfully accomplished what he set out to do," Siegenthaler said.

McGuigan, a Haddonfield resident, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Amid much fanfare, the historic World War II battleship was returned to the Delaware River on Nov. 11, 1999. It is scheduled to open to the public as a floating museum next fall.

Donald Norcross, president of the Southern New Jersey AFL- CIO Central Labor Council and alliance vice president, will become board president until the group's reorganization in December, Siegenthaler said.

Work is under way to prepare the battleship, which is docked at the South Jersey Port Corp.'s Broadway Terminal, for its public opening. Board members are reviewing preliminary designs for the pier that will lead up to the ship and construction is expected to begin next month, Siegenthaler said.