Exploring Battleship Cove in Fall River

Photography by Chris Vaccaro

Then, in an adjacent building on land, are the PT Boats, or motor torpedo boats. The PT 617 served as a training vessel in Florida and is the only example of its kind on display in the world (fun fact: it’s the same type of vessel President John F. Kennedy once piloted). The PT 796 was assigned to a Navy ordnance testing station in Panama City, Florida, where she was used to develop specialized equipment for Vietnam river patrol. In 1961, she and her current berthmate, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., participated in President Kennedy’s inaugural celebration. 

“We also have three aircrafts: one is a T28 from the Korean War era and the other two are helicopters from the Vietnam era. We also have a duck boat and a landing craft on premises,” York adds. 

Plus, there’s the Maritime Museum.

“It’s a museum that personifies the maritime heritage of Fall River as well as the south coast of New England,” York says. “It has a great collection from the steamboat line that used to run between Fall River and New York City in the late nineteenth century into the mid twentieth century. It was the place to be and be seen because of the high society traffic between the ports. It was also a great way for the mills in town to ship a lot of their cotton textiles to the garment district in New York, where it would be sold to buyers for costumes, dresses, rugs — you name it. It was really a great booming business for Fall River when Fall River was a booming industrial city.”

The museum also houses archives from the United Fruit Company; the twenty-eight-foot Titanic model that was used in the 1953 film; an extensive ship models collection ranging from fully rigged ships to steamships to warships; and a wonderful painting and print collection of maritime art.

“Anything maritime, we’ve got it,” says York.

With so much going on, it’s clear that Battleship Cove is not only the ideal spot for seafarers, but also for families. 

“There’s so much to see here, kids always go home tired,” York says. “There are plenty of activities and things that they can touch and move on the battleship, unlike many other museums where you’re told ‘hands off.’ It’s a battleship, it’s meant to survive war, so it can handle kids.”

That’s where Joshua Bell comes in. 

“We do have some activities on board through our demonstration station funded by the Yawkey Foundation. We do a Homefront demonstration table where we talk about what everybody was doing during the war, then we transition to actually writing letters to the guys who live at the soldiers’ homes in Massachusetts,” he says. “The kids will fill out cards and say, ‘Thanks for your service’ and ‘Hey I’m at the USS Massachusetts, this place is really cool, I’m learning about all of the things that you guys did.’ ”

Bell offers activities and gives tours that are engaging and relatable. He wants everyone who visits to be able to answer the questions, “Why does this matter?” and “Why does this matter to me?”

“It’s one thing to rattle off numbers and say the ship fired 786 rounds, but did you know one weighed as much as a Toyota Corolla? Imagine having to load 786 rounds onto the ship and how long that would take, the process it would involve. It’s good to get our visitors thinking through that.” 

To get the most of your experience, though, Battleship Cove encourages visitors to take advantage of its nautical nights. The immersive, overnight trips were originally created with local Scout groups in mind, but individual families can tag along, as well. 

“In the evening they’ll go through a couple of demonstration stations: the letters, they might learn about ammunition, they might watch the orientation film about the ship, we might play Battleship on a battleship,” Bell says with a laugh. “At night, they get to walk the same hallways, eat in the same areas and sleep in the racks down below in the same bunks as the sailors did. Then in the morning they play ‘Reveille’ nice and loud at 0600. You really get an idea of what life was like without enlisting.”

Left Photo: Below decks of the USS Massachusetts; Right Photo: The USS Lionfish (left) and the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (right) are also part of Battleship Cove’s impressive collection. Photography by Chris Vaccaro

The overnighters see other aspects of a sailor’s life up close, including the very location and piece of metal where a missile punched through during the Battle of Casablanca, a vintage ice cream counter setup (where all men are created equal for ice cream; even the captains had to wait their turn in line), the cramped quarters, the giant coffee vats, the complicated gunneries and more. 

But for those who aren’t interested in roughing it for a night, there’s also events like World War II Comic Day to look forward to. 

“On May 24th we will have comic book-based, kid-friendly activities centering around superheroes that became household names during World War II, like Superman and Wonder Woman,” says Bell. “A lot of the sailors and soldiers abroad would read the comics to pass the time. It was a big morale booster. It was a little bit of escapism but at the same time they could look at the pages where Captain America was fighting the
enemy and be like, ‘Oh, I was there!’ ”

The event also bolsters Battleship Cove’s celebration of the real heroes. 

“Visitors come to us all the time and say, ‘My grandpa was at Iwo Jima’ or ‘My grandmother was a Navy Wave,’ ” says York. “It’s great to hear those stories and keep those memories alive for visitors. The past is relevant, always. Especially when you look back at your ancestors and think: It’s because of them that we’re here.”

I can’t begin to guess how I would have reacted had I been told to prepare for impact. But I can tell you that I agree with York’s concluding statement about Battleship Cove: “It gives you a great sense of pride in not only just your state, but the nation.” battleshipcove.org.