David’s Top Five Museum Ships

I did a Top Five Tanks a few years back so decided now would be a good time to do another one but with my top five favorite museum ships. I’m a guy and I love history, so my favorite things include tanks, airplanes, ships and trains. This website is basically a monument to my obsessive need to visit all these historic things and if possible ride them.

To be clear, this is a list of personal favorite museum ships not “the best” as that is highly subjective and I’ve not been to every museum ship to make that determination. So far I’ve been to a little more than 50 historic or replica historic ships. These are mostly in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. There’s also a distinct lack of tall ships as I’m more interested in 20^th century motor-powered vessels. This list reflects those travels but I would love to hear your favorite museum ships in the comment section.

A deciding factor in what makes a ship among my favorites is how well the ship presents itself as a museum. A museum ship isn’t just a rather sizeable artifact full of other artifacts but a place of education. It should teach not just its history, but show where it fits into the bigger picture. If possible it should also be able to teach about the technology of its time. This made deciding between my top two rather difficult as both do these things, albeit a little bit differently and the top spot went to the one I felt did those things best.

To avoid redundancy I limited myself to one ship from each type such as one aircraft carrier and one battleship. Whether a ship stands alone or as part of a larger collection is discussed but not a factor in my decision as I’m looking at a vessel on its own merit.

5. Hikawa Maru
Yokohama, Japan

Hikawa Maru is a combination cargo-passenger liner built for the Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha Line (NYK Line) that when commissioned in 1930 had the latest in engineering technology, luxury and style. The liner was built to ply the lucrative Japan-Seattle trans-Pacific route and did so until requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1941. She served as a hospital ship during World War II and post war repatriated Japanese servicemen before returning to NYK service. Hikawa Maru was retired and became a museum ship in 1961. Today she is moored at Yokohama’s Yamashita Park, her long, low black hull is a far cry from the bloated, super-sized cruise ships that dock on the cruise ship terminal at the park’s opposite end. The ship is unique because she is the only surviving Japanese pre-World War II passenger liner and one of the only surviving ships to have served the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Hikawa Maru mostly memorializes an interesting part of trans-Pacific history and her preserved spaces reflect her 1930s heyday, at least as the first class passengers knew it. Not over-the-top but still glamorous, the first class cabins, art deco lounges and dining make the pre-war era of travel feel envious. The ship’s history is shared through these rooms and a few museum spaces with artifacts and anecdotes about crew and passengers to color in the Pacific crossing stories. Some of the working spaces such as the bridge, radio and engine room are also open.

Less explored is the ship’s wartime history as a hospital ship. It’s not hidden, her wartime history is fully part of the ship’s historic narrative, but there are no artifacts aboard from that time. There is one piece in the chart room though, which I found rather touching. Hikawa Maru was one of thee sister ships and all were pressed into service, though the other two became submarine tenders. Only Hikawa Maru survived the war. Sentimentally commemorated on the chart of New Guinea are three statements in English:

“This is Hikawa Maru. I wait for you at Yamashita Park.”

“This is Hie Maru. We are sinking at 300 miles from Rabaul…”

“This is Hiean Maru. We are sinking at Truk Island…”

While Hikawa Maru stands alone as a museum ship, she’s close to the former training ship Nippon Maru, a steel-hulled, rigged sailing ship, located in Yokohama’s original Dry Dock No. 1.

4. SS John W. Brown
Baltimore, Maryland, US

Commissioned in 1942 and built in 54 days, SS John W. Brown is a good example of the simple, cheap and quick to build ECS-S-C1emergency cargo ship, better known as a “Liberty Ship,” that enabled the Allied victory in World War II. Brown moved supplies and troops across the Atlantic and supported both the Anzio landings and invasion of Southern France in 1944. After World War II Brown became part of the New York Vocational High School. She became a museum ship in 1988.

As a museum ship in the traditional sense there isn’t much to see. The only open spaces are part of the expansive and empty cargo hold, a small armed guard museum room, the bridge and the engine room; but as one of the only two operating liberty ships in existence it provides the extremely rare opportunity to get underway on a wartime vessel. I took one of its day cruises in 2012 and what it provided was part education and part entertaining spectacle.

On deck they had live period music and slapstick from a barbershop quartet, a trio of female singers and Abbot & Costello reenactors to entertain us but the big performance came after the declaration of war was played over the 1MC. “Japanese” aircraft (a modified Russian YAK trainer and SNJ Texan trainer) came at the ship and were met with “fire” from Brown’s antiaircraft gun crews and (pneumatically-powered) 20mm Oerlikon cannons. Finally they were driven off by a TBF Avenger dive bomber.

Cheesy? Very. But, I got to watch a gun crew aboard a ship in action as piston-powered aircraft came at us as if they intended to attack. Throughout the day we were also visited by an L-4 Grasshopper liaison aircraft, a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber and B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. For those interested in engineering, you can stand in the engine room and observe the triple-expansion steam engine in operation as it powers the vessel and talk with engineers about their work. The old steam engine is surprisingly quiet.

Watch your fingers.

John W. Brown operates regular day cruises throughout the year, check out their website (linked at the end) for more information.

3. USS Midway (CV-41)
San Diego, California, US

Entering service the week after World War II ended, USS Midway (CV-41) was the first of a new class of large armored deck aircraft carriers. Her career spanned the Cold War; her aircraft flew missions over Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, where the venerable carrier had its last hurrah. When she entered service she was the largest carrier in the fleet, when she retired 47 years later she was the smallest. She became a museum ship in 2004.

This is my favorite aircraft carrier museum as it operates well as both a ship and air museum. Its World War II collection has an SBD Dauntless, F4U Corsair, F4F Wildcat and now the full-scale replica TBD Devastator from the 2019 movie “Midway.” There are no surviving Turkeys so the last one is special despite being a replica. It also has the aircraft of my childhood, the F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder and F-4 Phantom II as well as some of the 1950s early jet age aircraft onboard. I grew up around naval aviation so naval aircraft are special to me.

The ship itself is preserved as it was upon decommissioning and has many crew spaces, both officer and enlisted, preserved as well as various working compartments like personnel support and dental. Not as full a snapshot of shipboard life as my No. 2 and No. 1 selections but I like what they’ve done and always enjoy coming back to see what’s new. There’s always a line, but the bridge is worth visiting at least once as is taking the time to watch the short Midway movie.

Midway is almost co-located with San Diego’s historic ships collection which includes civilian craft, tall ships and both an American and Soviet submarine. For Master and Commander fans “HMS Surprise,” the replica frigate is also part of that collection.

2. USS Massachusetts (BB-59)
Falls River, Massachusetts, US

USS Massachusetts is a South Dakota-class fast battleship commissioned in 1942 that supported the invasion of North Africa, the liberation of the Philippines and faced kamikazes at the Battle of Okinawa. Her claim to fame is firing the last 16” shells at the Japanese home islands before the cessation of hostilities on Aug. 15, 1945. Her short yet lively career ended in 1947, but because it was decommissioned so shortly after the war Massachusetts was never modernized and is maintained in her wartime configuration. She became a museum ship in 1965.

Battleship museums are the most American form of museum. Massively over-sized and bristling with the biggest guns, they are on a scale few other ship museums can match. A battleship, when done right can use this immensity to showcase itself as a living city at sea where thousands of young men went into harm’s way with all the little artifacts museums normally keep under glass instead displayed in their natural environment for visitors to see them as they were meant to be. Open from below deck ammunition spaces and engineering up to the bridge, USS Massachusetts is the most completely open battleship I’ve ever been on.

It’s not only the volume of preserved spaces, but that they are amply equipped with everything that should be in it and not just a representative sample. Ammunition spaces are fully-loaded for war, banks of electronics wall the radio room and medical is ready for any ailment a patient may have. Not comprehensive, but a short list of preserved spaces includes the bridge, armored bridge, captain’s cabin, 5” gun compartment, 16” gun barbette, medical and dental, fire control, ammunition spaces, combat information center, Radio Central, Radio III (Emergency Radio Transmitter Room), a 5” gun battery plotting room, and the brig.

The multi-story open compartment inside Barbette No. 2 is the ship’s most impressive preserved space. It’s hard to believe such as large vertically open space exists on a warship and is a reminder of the ship’s scale when all other internal compartments have relatively low overheads and are no bigger than spaces you’d find on other vessels.

Another standout is a space near the bow that’s stripped out, but with shipyard worker mannequins is presented as if the ship were still under construction. It’s an interesting touch I’ve never seen replicated elsewhere and calls attention the service of the people who put her to sea. Some of them would sign up for the Navy and go to war on this behemoth they had a hand in constructing.

Signage throughout is simple and clearly explains a space’s function; some also include stories of Sailors who served on Massachusetts providing a nice personal touch. Because a ship isn’t just technical specs and a historic narrative, as we get further from World War II and those who lived through it pass away I believe those personal stories will become more and more vital in preserving the human side of the story.

Even after touring for hours I may have actually missed visiting a few spaces. It’s not a maze, but there’s a lot to see and the ship is big enough and multilevel so the path isn’t completely linear. Expect to walk a lot as well, not only is there a lot to see but it spans a ship 680 feet long.

Because of its size, the battleship also hosts smaller museums and memorials in redundant spaces. Several of the former crew quarters are now smaller museums within the museum, such as the Massachusetts WWII Memorial, PT Boat Museum and a model ship collection. It’s a bit rambling and seems to have just naturally grown over the years but makes for a good use of space and gives the ship little surprise extras. (In case seeing a near fully open battleship end to end wasn’t enough.)

Massachusetts is part of a very impressive ship collection at Battleship Cove which also includes Balao-class fleet submarine USS Lionfish (SS-298), which is still in her wartime configuration, Gearing-class destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD-850), two PT Boats, a World War II LCM landing craft, and the East German Soviet-built corvette Hiddensee. This collection is a must for anyone who loves museum ships and seeing them all under one ticket is a great deal.

1. HMS Belfast (C35)
London, UK

Rule, Britannia.

HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1939 and served throughout World War II and the Korean War. Her battle history highlights both well known chapters in the world war, such as providing fire support on D-Day, as well as others that aren’t as well known to the general public such protecting the as the Arctic convoys which provided a lifeline to the Soviets. Belfast would be modernized post-war and served as a receiving ship until decommissioning in 1963. She began operating as a museum ship in 1971.

Belfast is the most engaging and educational experience I’ve had on any museum ship. It is at the top of my list for some of the same reasons as Massachusetts. It has the same sense of completeness in that over nine decks it has many preserved spaces representing all the major ship functions full of equipment as well as museum spaces but Belfast simply has the better presentation. The arrangement of its self-guided walking tour, space preservation and presentation, informative displays and creative use of museum spaces to help give background and flesh out the ship’s story are simply the best.

From Sailors I know, I’m not alone in saying I developed a better understanding of how a ship’s propulsion works from a visit to Belfast than from classes I sat through and engine space walkthroughs on active navy ships I had on the topic. That says something about its ability to discuss a complicated topic in an understandable manner while also not “dumbing it down.” That level of teaching about not just what is in a space, but how it works, is something I rarely see.

It also has little touches I’ve not felt or smelled on any other museum ship. Walking through the main passageway I felt a warm breeze that brought to mind a laundry room which a moment later made me stop because museum ships don’t have active laundry rooms- but Belfast replicates that feeling in its. The medical spaces smell antiseptic, the crew quarters reeks of cheap aftershave and the bakery is pleasantly warm.

The aft turret is also used as uncommon theater for telling the story of the Battle of North Cape and the sinking of German battlecruiser Scharnhorst. (Artifacts from that vessel can be found in a museum space aboard the vessel as well.) While lacking the intensity of real operation, one of the same 6” guns that fired upon Scharnhorst and the Normandy beaches replicates loading and firing, filling the compartment with (safe) smoke as the battle’s story is projected on the bulkhead.

I recommend visitors get the audioguide for an extra layer of detail that compliments the self-guided walking tour. On my visit just before New Year’s 2013 I spent several hours going all over the ship and I look forward to my next chance to do so again.

The Imperial War Museum operates Belfast as a museum ship on the River Thames near the Tower Bridge and just across from the Tower of London. It is also a short walk from the replica of Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind. Belfast stands alone as a museum ship, but is in an area rich in cultural sites for a fine day out.