Battleship 2011
Ariel Wascom
YOU can directly impact our mission to continue the "Big J's" on-going maintenance, restoration and public education programs by becoming a "Crew Member" of the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.
When visitors first witness the Battleship New Jersey, they are amazed at its sheer size. Nearly three football fields long and over 11 stories high, the Battleship New Jersey was the longest battleship ever built.
Moored across from historic downtown Wilmington, the Battleship welcomes visitors daily. Plot your own course as you explore nine levels, climb inside gun turrets, marvel at early computers, and see where the crew ate, slept, and worked. Crew stories throughout the Ship introduce you to the 2,000 young men who called the Showboat home.
Encircling the Ship, the State Employees Credit Union (SECU) Walkway provides an opportunity to appreciate her majesty and power. Enjoy a picnic in Battleship Park or savor a meal in Wilmington. And take a piece of her home from the Battleship Steel Collection!
We were unsure how long we would spend with two small kids (ages 4 & 7) and ended up spending over 2 hours on this huge battleship! The experience really makes you appreciate the men and women who defend our nation as you can tour many levels of the ship. You get a chance to see how the sailors lived their daily lives as you see many different sections, including above and below the main deck.
This is a unique opportunity to get to tour this class of Battleship. The staff here is very friendly and does a great job of maintaining this ship and opening it up as much as possible for tours. It was really a treat to get to see the very tight working spaces inside the 16-inch gun turrets.
I served 4 years in the Navy on an aircraft carrier. What could I learn on a tour of the North Carolina? A lot! Our tour guide took our group of four from the bridge to the bilge and from the bow to the fantail. He tailored the tour to our liking, stopped when anyone needed a break, and always made sure we saw everything we wanted to see.
An incredible ship, with an equally incredible history. We toured the vessel on our own, taking time to read crew memories and explore in our own time over a 2hr period. Surprised how much is accessible! Loved exploring below deck. We had a great experience learning more about BSNC and her crew. Nice souvenirs to take home in the gift shop, too.
USS IOWA has a long and fascinating history. She was built as the lead vessel of the newest class of battleships, designed during the 1930s as the world was rapidly moving toward war. Commissioned in 1943, IOWA was used in both the Atlantic and the Pacific theaters during World War II.
This type of ship had its origins during the US Civil War, when both the North and the South produced iron-clad warships. A famous naval battle just north of Norfolk, VA between the USS MONITOR and the USS MERRIMACK (rebuilt and renamed the CSS VIRGINIA by the South) demonstrated that existing wooden ships had become obsolete.
In 1869, the HMS MONARCH, built by Great Britain, became the first ocean-going iron-hulled battleship. One of the changes that began to show up on Civil War ships was the replacement of broadside guns pointing out of portholes in the side of the ship with guns mounted in swiveling turrets on the main deck. MONARCH embraced this change fully and represented the first truly modern warship.
The first battleship built for the US navy was USS MAINE, constructed in the navy yard in New York City. The last, never finished, was KENTUCKY, whose construction came to an end in 1947 at the Norfolk Navy Yard. In total, the naval history of the U.S. includes the construction of 59 battleships of 23 different classes.
There is a large number of naval history exhibits around the country that feature ships from the United States Navy. The greatest number are ships from WWII. The oldest is the USS CONSTITUTION, whose construction began in 1797 and which is still a commissioned ship.
The Washington Navy Yard, beginning in the early 1800s, was an important center of ship and gun production for the U.S. navy until ordinance and gun production ceased in 1961. The new national museum of the Navy, sometimes colloquially called the Naval Gun Factory Museum, was opened in 1963.
Battleship USS Iowa is a community platform leveraged for engaging and impactful programs. We focus our activities into three primary pillars: education, veterans, and community.
The museum is operated by Pacific Battleship Center, a 501c3 non-profit organization solely supported by admissions, donations, event space rentals, and gift shop. We do not receive government funding for our operations.
The Battleship New Jersey is the longest, fastest, most decorated battleship in history. She was first commissioned in 1943 and last decommissioned in 1991. She served in World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Lebanese Civil War, Cold War, and the Persian Gulf. More than 55,000 Sailors and Marines served on board during almost a half century of service to our country.
Your purchase of this special plate will help restore, preserve, exhibit, and interpret the history of the USS New Jersey and her veterans for current and future generations. The proceeds will support the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.
Even though it has been 80 years since I reported aboard the battleship at San Francisco in 1943, my memories of the major battles the Nevada fought in World War II remain as vivid as if they happened yesterday.
I had the privilege of serving on a U.S. warship that served in every major theater of the war. She was the only battleship that was able to get underway during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Although severely damaged by a torpedo and five bomb hits that sparked a major fire belowdecks and killed 60 crewmen, the Nevada nevertheless was repaired, modernized, and returned to service in just ten months. She had just returned from her first wartime mission bombarding Japanese positions on Attu in the Aleutians when I reported aboard at San Francisco in late May 1943. I was one of 200 freshly minted sailors who had crossed the country by train from boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois.
Looking back, I realize that my family history likely preordained that I would join the Navy. My great-grandfather, Frank Ramsey, was a boilermaker and pipefitter at the Continental Iron Works shipyard in Brooklyn. He was one of the shipwrights who built the ironclad Monitor for the Union Navy in the fall and winter of 1861. One of my uncles, Joseph Ramsey, had made a career in the Navy at the turn of the 20th century, rising to the rank of chief petty officer, but, while serving in World War I, he tragically died of the influenza pandemic that swept across the United States and Europe in 1918. And my father, Frank Ramsey, served in the U.S. Army in France.
As I would learn during countless hours of training and gunnery practice, the 5-in./38-cal. was an excellent dual-purpose gun. We could shoot a 55-pound shell out to 18,000 yards against surface targets and engage aircraft flying up to 37,000 feet.
The fuze setter operated the equipment that set the arming time on projectiles with mechanical time fuzes. The powder-man and projectile-man loaded the gun. First, the powder-man placed the powder case on the rammer tray. Next, the projectile-man lifted a 55-pound shell out of the ammunition hoist, placed it in front of the powder case, and then pulled the rammer lever to insert both the powder case and projectile into the gun. Once fired, the hot case man would catch the empty powder case when it was ejected from the gun and throw it outside the mount.
One surprise I discovered was that while abovedecks the sound of main and secondary gun batteries firing simultaneously was deafening, this did not penetrate the turret. When we fired a round, the noise went out of the turret through the barrel. Still, those of us working inside became robots after a while.
Leaving San Francisco Bay in June, we continued our gunnery training as the Nevada proceeded south to the Panama Canal and crossed the Caribbean en route to Norfolk. After a brief overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, we began a ten-month stint on Atlantic convoy duty, criss-crossing the Atlantic with large groups of Allied merchant ships. As we later learned, the U-boat menace had been largely thwarted earlier that spring in several massive battles where Allied escort ships and aircraft drove them from the North Atlantic. However, the admirals feared that Germany might still unleash surface raiders to attack the merchantmen, and the Nevada was there as protection. They never did come out.
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