Naval Ship Museums
Some of the most fascinating museum artifacts available are the remains of old ships, pulled out of a harbor, preserved, or reconstructed. Here are some ship museums you won't want to miss.
At the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum in Quincy, Massachusetts, you can gaze at the USNSM USS Salem CA-139, the world's only preserved heavy cruiser. You can even spend the night aboard this ship with the Overnight Adventure package, in which you participate in hands-on survival activities and sleep in the same bunks once occupied by navy personnel.
Probably the most famous American ship museum is the USS Arizona Memorial, which has been built above the sunken remains of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, victim of a Japanese attack in 1941. The memorial floats above the battleship. According to Wikipedia, every U.S. president and Japanese emperor since 1941 has visited the site.
The second most famous American ship museum has to be the USS Constitution, commissioned during the George Washington administration and still afloat. The Constitution was built just after the United States won the Revolutionary War, as the beginning of a naval fleet befitting a powerful young nation. It proved its fortitude dealing with pirates that attacked U.S. merchant ships off the Barbary Coast. However, it was during the War of 1812 that it really outdid itself, sinking four British warships.
The Historic Naval Ships Association, which funds the preservation and conversion into museums of historically significant naval ships, has a website where you can search for ship museums by location, ship type, or ship name. Another list of preserved vessels in the United States is available from Hazegray.org. These range from the Cairo, an ironclad gunboat from 1862, to the Oliver Hazard Perry, a frigate from 1977.
If you are traveling abroad, there are plenty of museum ships to tour in other locales around the world. You can take a stroll around the HMS Belfast, which is moored on the Thames in London. In 1942 and 1943, the Belfast was the preeminent cruiser in the British navy. It was key to helping the allies land at Normandy in Operation Overlord. It also served in the Korean War.
In India, there is the INS Vikrant, who served as the nation's only aircraft carrier for two decades. In spite of a damaged boiler, the planes it transported helped the Indian fleet fight East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1971.
