Denise Noeby Denise Noe
First published in Spring, 2011, Volume 7, Issue 1, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.
Fall River, Massachusetts, is home to an inlet that proudly bears the appropriate name Battleship Cove because it is the site of a wondrous outdoor naval museum displaying various ships and a submarine that are historically important.
What is today the largest naval museum in the world was founded in 1965 when the USS Massachusetts was moored at the cove to honor those service people, the vast majority of them men, who gave their lives in World War II in the fight against the aggression of the Axis powers. As Planetware relates, “Since then several other ships have joined the Massachusetts including PT torpedo boats 796 and 617, the USS Lionfish, a WWII submarine and the USS Destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, which served in Korea, Vietnam and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
Visitors to this extraordinary out of doors and on water museum are allowed to walk freely through most parts of these vessels. The Massachusetts Travel Journal relates, “They can peer into a recreation of the captain’s living quarters, see the small cots military personnel would sleep on, and walk through the submarine’s dining area as 1940s music plays in the background.”
Each of the vessels at Battleship Cove has its own very special story.
The USS Massachusetts and the Battle of Casablanca
According to the official website of Battleship Cove, the USS Massachusetts was built in Quincy, Massachusetts, “and holds the record as the heaviest ship ever launched in Quincy.”
On 12 May 1942, the USS Massachusetts was commissioned. The workers who crafted this vessel apparently held a loyalty to this ship as well as their country since the Battleship Cove website reports, “Nearly eight hundred of her builders joined the Navy to serve on the Massachusetts.” They fondly called her “Big Mamie.”
This new ship had a crew who had to plunge into learning exactly how to maneuver and operate her at a level of professional excellence. In late October, 1942, the Massachusetts left the waters of the United States to join the Battleships New York and Texas off the Atlantic coast of Casablanca, Morocco.
These American ships were there to fight the forces of France that were collaborating with Nazi Germany, after the German invasion of France, in order to retain French control of its North African colonies.
The Battleship Cove website states that on 8 November 1942, “the Massachusetts fired the first American 16-inch gun salvos of World War II . . . In sixteen minutes she fired nine main battery salvos, scoring five hits.” One French vessel, the Battleship Jean Bart, was so damaged that it could no longer fight. The USS Massachusetts returned fire on a French gun battery called the El Hank. Later, the Massachusetts sank the Destroyer Boulonnais and helped sink the Destroyer Fougueux. The Battery El Hank also hit the Massachusetts.
However, the hard and skillful fighting of the brave crew of the Massachusetts contributed to their side’s eventual victory in this bitterly fought battle.
The Massachusetts returned to the state for which she had been named for fresh supplies and fittings. In February of 1943, she headed west through the Panama Canal to take part in the battles of the Pacific. The ship was extremely busy in furthering the Allied war effort. She participated in combat around the New Guinea-Solomons area, in the invasions of the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands, in strikes against the group of islands then known as Truk, and in several raids against Japanese bases.
In May 1944, the Massachusetts sailed to Bremerton, Washington, to have some of her parts modernized. She returned to action in September of that same year and participated in the invasion of the Palau Islands as well as in attacks on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
The Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide notes that the Massachusetts has a very special distinction: “She earned 11 battle stars for her World War II service and never lost a man in combat.”
After WWII, the Massachusetts operated with the United States Pacific Fleet. Years later, she became part of the Reserve Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia. The Battleship Cove website reports that the Massachusetts “was stricken in 1962 from the Navy Register and ordered sold for scrap.” This did not sit well with her former crew who had loyally held annual reunions since 1945. These dedicated men were determined that their beloved “Big Mamie” would become a memorial as befitted a ship with her distinguished record of service. Their lobbying efforts and fundraising paid off when the USS Massachusetts was brought to Fall River in June 1965.
Destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
It is hard to imagine a vessel possessing a richer history than the destroyer called the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. That history starts with its very title, being named after the eldest child of the famous family headed by Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy. During World War II, the patriotic young Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., like so many Americans, enlisted in the military and became a Navy pilot. In August, 1944, he volunteered for a vital mission: flying a plane carrying explosives into a German rocket-launching site. According to the Battleship Cove website, “The mission went tragically awry: The charges detonated prematurely, and Kennedy was killed.” After his death, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. was honored by being awarded both the Air Medal and the Navy Cross.
The ship bearing his name was commissioned on 15 December 1945. Her crew soon affectionately called the boat the “Joey P.” For about five years, the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. conducted training exercises in various places in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. As part of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, “Joey P” performed peacekeeping duties. The Battleship Cove website relates, “On February 3, 1951, she joined the carrier task force attacking North Korean positions. In May of that year she stood off Wonsan, North Korea, using her 5” guns for nearly a month of continuous bombardment duty. Kennedy left the war zone and arrived back in the States in August 1951, and for the next several years she completed several Sixth Fleet tours of duty, midshipmen cruises, and joint NATO maneuvers.”
This vessel took on a fresh role in 1961: helping with the first Mercury space flights. She returned to the Caribbean Sea to assist in these flights.
In September 1962, she served as the ship on which the brother of her namesake, then-President John F. Kennedy, traveled to the America’s Cup Races. During October, she sailed to the Caribbean Sea once again, this time in order to help with the naval blockade of Cuba that had been ordered by the President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. On 26 October 1962, the Kennedy stopped the Greek vessel Marucla which was suspected of attempting to transport missile parts to Cuba. Crew from the Kennedy boarded the Marucla.
Later she would again participate in the space program, this time by serving as a recovery ship during its Gemini period. Battleship Cove acquired the Kennedy in 1974. The ship participated in the making of the motion picture Thirteen Days in 2000, “acting” as herself.
The Hiddensee, a Lionfish – and the Fall River
Built by the Soviet Union and commissioned by East Germany, the Hiddensee is what is called a “missile corvette.” The Battleship Cove website states that it was “designed to oppose any naval threat to the East German Coast” and that it carried “anti-ship missiles and an array of defensive weapons designed to ensure her own survivability.” After West and East Germany reunified into a single country, that country’s Navy used the Hiddensee until April 1991. Shortly afterward, the German government transferred this vessel to the United States and she became part of our Navy. She was used in various capacities and often in research operations. Battleship Cove acquired the Hiddensee in 1997.
Battleship Cove is home to a submarine named the USS Lionfish that is one of Battleship Cove’s most popular exhibits. Commissioned on 1 November 1944, she served America in Japanese waters. An enemy submarine fired two torpedoes at the USS Lionfish but both of them missed. On 1 May 1945, the firepower of the deck guns of the Lionfish demolished a Japanese schooner. The Battleship Cove website states,
After a rendezvous with the submarine Ray, she transported B-29 survivors to Saipan and then made her way to Midway Island for replenishment. On 2 June she started her second war patrol, and on 10 July she fired torpedoes at a surfaced Japanese submarine, after which Lionfish’s crew heard explosions and observed smoke through their periscope. She subsequently fired on two more Japanese submarines and ended her second and last war patrol performing lifeguard duty (the rescue of downed fliers) off the coast of Japan.
She was decommissioned and then re-commissioned on 31 January 1951, to play a part in NATO training exercises. She was again decommissioned and again re-commissioned. As the Battleship Cove website elaborates, she served “as a reserve training submarine at Providence, Rhode Island.”
The USS Lionfish joined Battleship Cove in 1973.
Perhaps no vessel that is harbored at the naval museum is more suitably named than the one that was named after the town itself, the USS Fall River. The Battleship Cove website reports that this ship “was launched on August 13, 1944 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Alexander C. Murray, wife of the mayor of Fall River.”
This vessel was commissioned on 1 July 1945. The ship was used in a variety of experimental operations including the tests of atomic weapons that took place in the Marshall Islands in 1946. The Fall River was a flagship in the Pacific from 12 January 1947 to 17 June 1947. The Battleship Cove website elaborates, “She returned to Puget Sound Navy Yard, where she was placed out of commission in reserve on October 31, 1947.”
Visitors to Battleship Cove are welcomed at the entrance by the bow of the USS Fall River.
Proudly keeping the PT history alive
Battleship Cove also boasts the PT Boat Museum and Library that is maintained by PT Boats, Inc., an organization headquartered in a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. “PT Boats” are “Patrol Torpedo Boats.” The official website of PT Boats, Inc. describes the organization as “established by veterans of WWII PT service to preserve the history of Patrol Torpedo Boats, their shore bases and tenders ships, and the men who manned them.”
The website continues that Battleship Cove devotes no less that 4,000 square feet to the exhibitions of two restored PT Boats as well as artifacts and information about many commissioned squadrons, bases and tender ships.
The two PT boats at Battleship Cove are the Higgins-built PT 796 and the Elco-built PT 617. Both boats have the distinction of having won recognition by the United States government as National Historical Landmarks. The PT 796 is inside the WWII Quonset hut at Battleship Cove and the PT 617 is inside its main building. Memorabilia and artifacts from all forty-five WWII PT squadrons are exhibited inside the USS Massachusetts.
According to the PT Boats, Inc. website, the PT 796 was nicknamed “Tail Ender.” After WWII ended, the vessel “was temporarily part of Post War Squadron 1.” At first, the armament remained on her. Later, as her assignments altered, the armament was taken off. During the Vietnam War, PT 796 performed towing work at Panama City, Florida, to help with the development of special equipment to be used during that conflict.
Interestingly, the PT 796 served with the Destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. on a very non-violent assignment. The two ships, now together at Battleship Cove, participated in the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy as President of the United States. The PT 796 was towed as a float in the President’s inaugural parade. The PT 796 was decommissioned in 1970 and turned over to the founder of PT Boats, Inc., J.M. “Boats” Newberry. After being restored by PT Boats, Inc., she was brought to Battleship Cove on 14 August 1975.
The PT Boats, Inc. website relates, “PT 617 was assigned to Patrol Torpedo Squadron 42, the only squadron commissioned after World War II. PT 617 participated in the Victory Loan Bond Drive in October and November 1945.” Later, she was sold to civilians and served in various capacities as yacht, salvage boat, and platform for divers. PT Boats, Inc. purchased her in 1979 and restored her to what she had once looked like. She became a Battleship Cove exhibit on 1 September 1985.
What is thought of Battleship Cove?
As of this writing, several people have left reviews of Battleship Cove at Tripadvisor.com. All of the reviews are glowingly positive. One reviewer wrote, “It was so much fun to tour all of the ships! You get to go almost everywhere in them.” She added a piece of worthwhile advice to other potential visitors: “Wear good shoes and be prepared to walk a lot.” Another reviewer stated, “We visited Battleship Cove during our stay in New England. I found it very interesting, particularly seeing the Russian ship alongside all the American ones.” Another said, “We fully enjoyed our stop at the Battleship Cove. I thought we would be a bit more limited while visiting, but was pleasantly surprised we could venture in the sub and ships as we wanted. Took many many pictures, there are no restrictions!” Still another pertinently commented, “It was interesting to [be] able to actually go in the bowels of the ships and submarine and to imagine what our war heroes had to endure at sea.”
In the Home/Travel section of an issue of the Boston Globe, writer Robert Preer effusively praises Battleship Cove. Preer writes, “It’s a year-round attraction on the Fall River waterfront . . . To say you can’t miss it is no exaggeration. The big roads through the city, Interstate 195 and state routes 138 and 79, get so close that you can almost feel heat from the big guns pointed at you. History and military buffs, as well as those fascinated by the authentic stuff of battle, should follow their impulses and pull over.”
Preer singles out the USS Massachusetts for special accolades, speculating that this is the exhibit “where visitors will want to spend the most time. . .” Obviously highly impressed, Preer continues, “It does not take much imagination to get caught up in Big Mamie’s history.”
Later Preer states, “Because the rooms are well-preserved and maintained, visitors get a true feel for what life was like on the ship in wartime. All spaces are labeled and most have interpretive signs or audio-visual presentations that provide plenty of detail. The history comes alive even more through recorded recollections of crew members played on television monitors placed around the ship.” However, Preer warns, “The bunk areas are not for the claustrophobic. Canvas-and-steel cots are packed tight and stacked in rows of three. The largest sleeping area held 183 men.”
The Fall River Carousel: An exhibit for landlubbers
There is a major exhibit at Battleship Cove that has always been on dry land—and has never been in battle. That exhibit is the colorful Fall River Carousel. This beautiful carousel was created in 1920 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. It was a popular ride at the Lincoln Amusement Park in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts for 70 years. The Lincoln Amusement Park was known far and wide as a place of wholesome and often high-spirited entertainment for people of all ages. Many famous individuals, including Eleanor Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, visited the park.
In 1991, the Lincoln Amusement Park ran into financial difficulty. The Battleship Cove website relates that “a group of Fall River business leaders lobbied to bring the carousel to Battleship Cove. . . . the community rallied around the carousel and refurbished it at a cost of $250,000. A majestic Victorian pavilion was constructed to house the attraction.”
Oral histories and other Battleship Cove doings
Battleship Cove does much to preserve truths about our military heritage. In addition to the ships themselves, there is the Veterans’ Voices Oral History Project at Battleship Cove. According to the Battleship Cove website, the project “collects and preserves the life experiences of veterans as a growing, living record of American culture.” One of the “most ambitious” and “largest veterans’ oral history archives” in New England, it includes the recorded remembrances of United States Senator and former Presidential candidate John S. McCain III.
Battleship Cove Community Boating (BCCB) is a program that holds classes for both youth and adults in sailing.
Committed to educating youngsters about naval history, Battleship Cove has its own Education Department that offers a wide variety of learning programs.
One of those educational programs is “Nautical Nights” in which children, accompanied by a parent or guardian, spend the night aboard a Battleship Cove vessel. This program started in 1972 when the leader of a Boy Scout troop asked the Executive Director of Battleship Cove at that time, Paul Vaitses, “Is it possible for my scout group to spend a night aboard?” and Vaitses enthusiastically answered, “Absolutely.” The Battleship Cove website states, “It is not uncommon to see a father, who as a boy spent a night aboard the battleship, return with his son to repeat the experience. They trudge up the gangway carrying sleeping bags, pillows, backpacks (and an occasional teddy bear).”
Children and adolescents are inevitably impressed by what they see, the website elaborates:
The awesome size of the ship dazzles them. They gaze at the masts where the U.S. flag and an array of signal flags flutter proudly. They marvel at the 16” guns, the 40 MM mounts, the turrets and the superstructure. . . . After stowing their gear, campers wander in wonder at everything Battleship Cove has to offer. The look of amazement turns to glee when they climb on the 40 MM mounts and crank the handwheels. With imaginary shells bursting all around they fight off the enemy and save their proud ship. They scamper about, investigating the guns, ducking into the turrets, climbing on the mounts, sprinting up the ladders . . . exploring everywhere.
Visiting Battleship Cove is also certain to bring home to those of us who have not served our country in the military just how much our soldiers sacrifice—and remind us to be grateful for all that they have done and will do to preserve our freedom.
Works Cited
“About Our Organization.” PT Boats. Web. 12 May 2011.
Battleship Cove: The World’s Largest Naval Ship Museum. U.S.S. Massachusetts Memorial Committee. Web. 12 May 2011.
“Battleship Cove.” TripAdvisor. Web. 12 May 2011.
“Fall River – Battleship Cove.” Planetware. Web. 12 May 2011.
“Military History at Battleship Cove in Fall River.” Massachusetts
Travel Journal. Web. 12 May 2011.
Preer, Robert. “Old ships fight their loss to memory.” Boston
Globe. 1/9/2005. Web. 12 May 2011.
“PT Boat Museum.” PT Boats, Inc.-Museum. Web. 12 May 2011.
“USS Massachusetts.” Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide. Web. 12 May 2011.
