The battle ship is wide open to visitors. You walk through the entrance and pay your fifteen bucks if you’re over 55 ($18 if you’re not. It’s all a pittance for what you get), and you can wander at will. If you can’t go there, or touch it, they have closed it off. Otherwise you can take all the time you want to see and stare at whatever you want.
The entrance display is extraordinary in itself with tributes to African Americans who served with distinction before President Truman ordered the integration of the military in 1948. Women at war get their display too. But then you arrive at the ramp. I was a little too elderly to try running.
The exterior is familiar to anyone who has seen historic photos of this class of battleship. I was slightly surprised to see teak decks bolted onto the steel. I guess wood was still the best decking underfoot in the years between the World Wars.
Handouts offer a list of statistics on both the submarine as well as the battleship.
I spent four hours at the park walking around but I never got to the upper decks. I was burned out and wanted to save that for another visit.
As they point out it’s a city with all the support systems a city requires.
I got to see the living quarters which were fascinating. Then I visited the gun turret with the sixteen inch guns. Luckily I was alone as it was claustrophobic and tiny.
A spare propellor for the ship.
3 comments:
Have you been to the Midway in San Diego? Very similar experience. One of the highlights was the docents who were all retired military that really brought things to life. San Diego has had a big military presence for decades. Seems to me when we first went they were WWII vets most of who are gone now.
Cuz Lynn
Id like to do that. I want to go back to the Alabama too.
Thanks for the photo tour. Couple of FYI comments. I served 25 years in the steam powered navy. Noted the lack of fire room and engine room pictures. The ALABAMA Memorial organization may not have yet budgeted for making these spaces safe for visitors - or as you noted - there is a lot of ship to tour. Lots of asbestos. Very expensive to render safe. The NORTH CAROLINA Memorial ship in Wilmington NC has one fire room and one engine room set up for touring. May not be glamorous, but that's where all the power comes from. Your timber deck observation sent me on a quest for an authoritative reason weather deck timber cladding was chosen long after steel construction and armor replaced timber construction. Lots of speculation. Better footing? That was a criteria for the 19th century sailing warships with the manual labor required to rig and trim the ship and sailors often working unshod. The traditional teak deck had strips of holly wood inlaid slightly proud of the teak surface to provide 'grip'. (this is a cosmetic feature on many yachts) Doubt that was a design consideration for installing teak decks on battleships and cruisers constructed during the first half of the 20th century. Also, no holly inlay was used. Another speculation was the insulating qualities reduced the below decks heat load. Most likely the heat resistance was factored in to the integrated design, however, there were much cheaper materials available during the between World Wars period to achieve the same result. Another speculation observed the timber would inhibit metal-to-metal contact when arming the ship thereby reducing the possibility of accidental detonation. Having been a participant in the process of arming destroyers from the pier with each sailor cradling a 5 inch shell in their arms while carrying the ordnance to the magazine, I can understand the source of speculation; however, I note these destroyers I served on did not have timber cladded weather decks and safe handling features designed in to the ordnance and handling procedures muted the need for deck cladding. My best guess is timber cladding over steel deck and armor was part of the ballistic protection design. These ships were designed to survive a slugging match with similar sized enemy ships sending armor piercing ordnance inbound. Timber has properties that would absorb a lot of the energy of a 'hit' on the exposed horizontal decks. These same considerations went into the design of the sailing warship and carried on through the steel construction era.
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