Museum ship

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This article is about original, preserved ships that can be visited by the public. For ships that are not original see Ship replica, for preserved incomplete ships and smaller boats see Ships preserved in museums.

USS Wisconsin, one of three Iowa class battleships opened to the public as a museum, and was one of two Iowas maintained in the US Mothball fleet.

Former crewmembers of the Battleship Missouri pose for photos after the Anniversary of the End of World War II ceremony.

A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public. There are several hundred of these around the world, often associated with maritime museums.

[edit] Significance

Despite the long history of sea travel, the ravages of the elements and the expense of maintenance has resulted in the destruction of nearly all the ships that were ever built, often by sinking, usually by being broken up and sold for scrap. Only a few have survived, sometimes because of historical significance, but more often simply due to luck and circumstance.

Since an old ship tied up at dockside, without attention, will still decay and eventually sink, the practice of recent years has been to form some sort of preservation society, solicit donations from governments and the wealthy, organize volunteer labor from the enthusiasts, and open the restored ship to visitors, usually for a fee.

The restorations have presented an interesting set of problems for historians who are frequently asked for advice, and the results periodically generate some controversy. For instance, the rigging of sailing ships has almost never survived, and so the rigging plan must be reconstructed from various sources.

[edit] Museum usage

Typically the visitor enters via gangplank, wanders around on the deck, then goes below, usually using the original stairways, giving a sense of how the crew got around. The interior features restored but inactivated equipment, enhanced with mementos including old photographs, explanatory displays, pages from the ship's logs, menus, and the like. Some will add recorded sound effects, audio tours or video displays to add to the experience

A number of the larger museum ships have begun to offer hosting for weddings, meetings, and other events, sleepovers, and on a few ships still seaworthy, cruises. In this category is the Constitution's annual "turnaround," where the old ship is towed out into the harbor and brought back in facing the other way, so as to weather evenly. A place on the deck is by invitation or lottery only, and highly prized.

The tourism appeal of a city waterfront graced by an interesting old vessel is such that most port cities of the world now have at least one museum ship, even if it has meant building a replica ship at great expense.

The first museum ship could be considered to be Jason's Argo, which after his expedition for the Golden Fleece, was preserved on a beach and shown to visitors for ages afterwards.

[edit] Notable museum ships

Main article: List of museum ships