Back in September 2012 (this explains why it takes me so long to write a book review!) I went on a little two-day trip to Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA, and to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, MA. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but figured some people would enjoy seeing them anyway.
First, some views of Battleship Cove from the boardwalk at Fall River Heritage State Park.
The USS
Joseph P Kennedy Jr. is probably the best preserved of the four ships at Battleship Cove. Restoration is a year-round project, and several times a year former destroyer sailors and other volunteers spend a few days living aboard the ship, painting, restoring, and occasionally reactivating old electronic systems.
This side view vividly displays how the FRAM upgrades didn't exactly help the ship's lines by adding huge boxes all over the superstructure.
(Oh, and if you saw the pictures I took in 2009 and are confused, yes, the Braga Bridge is blue now.)
Moving to the right, we see the
Balao-class submarine
Lionfish, the East German "Tarantul I"-class missile corvette, and the stern of the
South Dakota-class battleship
Massachusetts.
The
Lionfish has been repainted lately, but rainwater constantly accumulates in the casing and drains out through the flooding slots, which explains why the saddle tanks are so much rustier than the rest of the boat.
...And the two viewed from the front.
A Landing Craft (Mechanized) was being restored at the moment. Not sure what it's status is now.
Two PT boats, one and Elco (PT-617) and another a Higgins (PT-796) are housed in an indoor exhibit. The first picture shows a Packard V12 4M-2500, a typical PT boat engine. The other shows the bow of PT-796.
I'd wager the
Massachusetts is the second best preserved of the four ships. The deck is a bit of a mess, and I saw grass growing out of it farther forward. Still, the ship looks remarkably similar to how it appeared at the end of WWII, except for the industrial-sized air conditioning unit on the superstructure.
Reading Norman Friedman's book on American battleships after visiting Battleship Cove was an eye-opener for me. These ships look huge, but it reality were incredibly cramped. This view of the starboard battery shows how closely crammed together everything was. The
South Dakota-class were an attempt to cram as much firepower, armor, and speed into a 35,000 ton ship. As a result, the superstructure turned into a mess - the command facilities, secondary battery, officer's quarters, fire control equipment, etc., were packed so closely together that congestion was a frequent issue. The walkway on either side is barely wide enough for two men to path, and you can also see the indentation in the hull for the fueling connections. There simply wasn't enough room on the deck for them!
