I have been on several battleships, but this one was the coolest. Why? You can go almost everywhere inside. It housed 2500 people and you can see that it is its own city on a ship. The other cool thing about the park is that you not only get to explore the U.S.S. Alabama, but you can go inside a submarine, wander outside and look at various aircrafts and military vehicles or walk around inside and look at various aircrafts and military vehicles. There is also a gift shop and a place to eat. My husband was not lying when he told me that it would take up a good part of our day to explore.

When we first got on the ship, we wandered around the top deck. We saw a couple come out from inside one of the gun turrets, so we scurried up inside too. It was a tiny space. My husband is 6’2 and his head was skimming the ceiling. There were spaces that he could not access, so I went in and took pictures. Sometimes it’s good to be short!

It took 140 men to man this gun turret. The artillery that they shot out of it could hit a target at 21 miles! I took a picture of this black pit because it went five decks below. One of the coolest parts of exploring the ship was that we could go inside this area below. No civilian has every been allowed inside. In fact, they had to create the space since the men who did work in that area had to crawl through a very small hatch.

I really enjoyed exploring the ship, but it was important that we followed the self guided tours. We saw quite a few people just wandering aimlessly throughout the ship, going up down areas and just skipping all around. It was really easy to get lost. If you go into the Tour Entrance on the main floor, they will explain to you the three different tours. One is yellow, one is red, and one is green and even though there are arrows and numbers for each place, it’s also good to pick up a paper that highlights the directions so you make sure you are in the right place and not missing anything. It says each tour takes about 30 minutes, but some took us longer because we read all the placards. Also, you need to be able to climb up and down a good number of stairs that are quite steep, so be prepared. Obviously you don’t have to do everything, but I really enjoyed seeing it all. It was amazing to see all the things that they needed to have for the crew. I didn’t take pictures of everything, so you won’t see the shoe shop, laundry room, photography lab, or all the different areas for all the different kinds of officers, but I think these pictures show a lot.

My uncle was in the Navy, but on a smaller boat. He said their bunks were five high. If one person rolled over, all the others felt it. He said there was a section where they could climb down if they got up in the middle of the night. I didn’t see that here.

They had their own printing press to print a newspaper every day. They got news about the war (which people back home would not get) as well as sports information and other news from the U.S. I thought this was really neat.

They had an ice cream shop! I would have definitely signed up for the Navy!

There was even a room for films and the guy who set up the movies for the soldiers.

There was a huge area for medical issues. You will see several pictures below. Often times, the U.S.S. Alabama had to stop and pick up people from other ships because they had the most comprehensive surgical/medical supplies. The picture above is the pharmacy. They mixed all the medications for you. There was also a surgery/examination room, sick bay, isolation area, and even dentist chairs.

We also explored the submarine. There was a family with five kids ahead of us. The youngest was probably four years old. The second they got down into the sub he looked at his mom and said, can we go back up now? He was not into being inside that submarine AT ALL. This sub could hold 65 men. It was tough getting through the hatches. I couldn’t imagine living in a space like that.

This where they loaded the torpedos. I was surprised how long they were.

This tiny area has the toilet on the left and the shower on the right. However, the men did not use the shower when they were under water. They used the condensation from the ship to wipe up. Sometimes they would surface in the rain and go topside to clean up. The one thing I didn’t think about was that it was very hot and humid inside the submarine.

If you have any interest in exploring these ships, I would highly recommend it. It was really fun wandering around and I learned a lot as well.