Battleship Cove in Fall River

Battleship Cove in Fall River is a floating museum.

The battleship Massachutes of the South Dakota class was laid down 7/20/1939, commissioned 5/12/1942, at the Bethlehem Steel Corp., Quincy, MA. It has 35,000 ton displacement, is 650 feet long, 108 feet wide, 29 feet draft, with main armament of 9 16 in. guns.

The ship took part in the Battle of the Atlantic and then was transferred in 1943 to the Pacific theater where it took part in some of the final major battles of the pacific.

The ship was decommissioned in 3/27/1947. Today it rests in Battleship Cove.

The Cove displays U.S. and foreign ships and boats. The red boat below is a late 1944 Japanses suicide boat. It was laden with explosives and manned by one person. This one was captured intact in 1945.

This rear photo taken from the stern of the Massachutes shows the aft main armament turret.

Here's a model of the Massachutes. It is housed inside the ship which has become a museum itself.

Another model from the museum. It is the St. Paul, a very detailed brass model approx. 7 ft. long and was used for radiation pattern testing.
The St. Paul was a Baltimore class heavy cruiser launched in Quincy Mass on 9/16/1944 and commisioned on 2/17/1945. She displaced 14,500 tons with main armament of 9 8in. guns. Her complement was 1700 officers and elinsted men. She served in the pacific theatre.

Inside the Massachutes again - the crew quarters. The ship complement was approximatly 1800 officers asnd enlisted men.

I took this shot from the bow of the Massachutes. It shows the superposed turrets.

This conning tower is of the fleet submarine Lionfish, a U.S. WWII fleet sub.

Inside the sub, in the forward torpedo room,

Going through this vessel was very claustrophobic to me. I wasn't comfortable. The hatchways are small, everything is close and closed. No space is wasted. The crew slept in shifts as there are only enough bunks for half the crew. This is the main control room.

Here's the engine room.

The photo above shows the Sealion and to its port side the Russian Missile corvett.

The placque below provides a brief history of the Sealion. (Click on it to enlarge it.)

The U.S. destroyer, Joseph Kennedy Jr., is also docked here. This is the aft portion.

And heres the front end.

This is the history of the Kennedy.

Another photo of the Russian missle corvett.

Class and type: Tarantul I class corvett
Displacement: 455 tons
Length:185 ft (56 m)
Beam: 36 ft (11 m)
Speed: 45 Knots
Armament:
One AK-176 76mm gun – 120 rpm
Two AK 630 30 mm six-barrel Gatling guns – 4,000 rpm
Two twin STYXX KT-138E launchers amidships
Two PK-16 chaff launchers aft-16 rounds each
FAM-14 Strella surface-to-air missile launchers

There's so much to see here that I couldn't do it all. I didn't get on the Joseph Kennedy Jr. nor on the Russian boat. There's always next time...