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USS Missouri (BB-63)FAQ

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Ships Characteristics?

Length? 887 feet, 3 inches.

Width? �108 feet 3 inches. Few Navy ships are built wider than that for the simple fact that they are designed to pass through the Panama Canal which is only 110 feet wide. At 108'3" USS Missouri passed through the Panama Canal several times, each time scraping and scratching the whole way.� One former crewmember described the noise as "a thousand fingernails on a blackboard."

Height? From the keel (the bottom) to the top of the superstructure she's 209 feet 8 inches tall; almost the size of a 20 story building. When fully loaded about 38 feet of that is underwater.

Weight? Fully loaded she displaces about 58,000 tons.� Empty she displaces closer to 45,000.� Keep in mind those are "ship tons" which means 2,240 pounds per ton rather than 2,000

Top speed? Officially 33 knots. During her modernization in the mid-80s she was put through high-speed trials where they ran her at 32 knots for a period of several hours, but there was still a little more speed to be had if they had really pushed it.� Theoretically, if she were lightly loaded and under perfect sea conditions she might reach upwards of 36 knots but I don't think that scenario would ever come to be.

Engines? She has 8 boilers and 4 double expansion General Electric steam turbines. In total she can produce about 212,000 horsepower forward and about 44,000 horsepower in reverse.

How many propellers?� She has 4 screws.�

How much fuel does she carry? About 2.5 million gallons of DFM. (standard Navy fuel).

Fun Fact! USS Missouri usually sailed with smaller escort ships and those ships, in large part because of their relatively small size, didn't have nearly the range as Missouri did.� Accordingly one of Missouri's tasks at sea was refueling her escorts. They'd pull up alongside every few days and we'd transfer some fuel over to them to keep them going.

Does she have generators on board? Yes, she has 8 SSTGs (Ship's Service Turbine Generators) that produce about 10,000KW of electrical power.� There are also 2 emergency diesel generators�that are, of course, somewhat smaller. Sitting at the pier we don't run the boilers to get power, however, the power is brought aboard from the pier with special cables.

What about fresh water? When she's at sea she has three evaporators on board and can make about 60,000 gallons of fresh water per day. Priority for use of the fresh water has to go to the boilers, of course, so most of the ship's systems (such as toilets) use salt water where potable water isn't essential.� The showers, however, were fresh water - though they did use water saving shower heads to minimize the amount of water used.� USS Missouri was designed for a crew of more than 2700 men, and so were her water systems.� Post-modernization our crew complement was only about 1500 so we had ample fresh water when needed.� On some ships "water hours" were instituted when crew members were not allowed to take showers or other "unnecessary" uses of fresh water in order to conserve.� USS Missouri, thanks to her excess capacity, didn't have to do that.

Fun Fact! �Only one toilet on the USS Missouri flushes fresh water.� No, not the Captain's.� It's the one in the brig (jail).� Why?� Because they didn't want the men who were sent to the brig to deliberately drink the salt water and make themselves sick so that they could be transferred to sick bay.

The deck is wood? Yes, it's teak and we have about 53,000 square feet of it aboard.� There are several reasons for the wood; among them the desire to reduce accidental sparks during the loading of ammunition and powder and the need to insulate the ship a bit against heat (hot sun beating down on an armored deck is not conducive to crew comfort).� Teak is a durable wood and properly maintained it doesn't rot easily -- important when you spend a lot of your life soaking in sea water. Also, when it's wet, it's non-slip. Very little, if any, of our current deck is original; most of it has been replaced over the years during various overhauls.� All cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers of the period had wood decks.

Did the wood always look like it does today?� Was it stained?� No, actually when she originally sailed during WWII the deck was painted deck blue and at various times of her career the deck was painted various shades of blue or grey as a camouflage.� When not painted the deck was usually well sanded and scrubbed; of course they had 2600 men on board to maintain the deck then.� Our deck crew today works very hard but is quite a bit smaller and so we aren't able to maintain the same high shine they did back when she was active.

Battleship decks were never stained; only aircraft carriers had their wood decks stained in those days.

How many crew did she carry? During the WWII/Korea era she sailed with from 2700 to as many as 3000 men aboard, including 132 officers and 53 Marines.� The exact number varied from time to time; for example there were quite a few more men aboard when Admiral Halsey and his flag staff were aboard. After the modernization in 1986 that number was reduced to about 1500 men; including 65 officers and a detachment of 53 Marines.

How long was a tour of duty aboard Missouri?� There wasn't any set time.� Some men served aboard for a couple of years, some for a few weeks.� It was all about the "Needs of the Navy" at the time.� A fairly common tour length was 18 months or so, however.

How many Chief Petty Officers did she carry? �During the Gulf War approximately 85 of her enlisted crew were Chief Petty Officers.� I don't have a count for the pre-modernization era but it would be reasonable to guess that it could be 140 or more.

Did you have "Hot bunks?" (Editor's Note: "Hot bunks" are a sleeping arrangement whereby two or more men share a single bunk - one man is sleeps while the other(s) work.) �No.� USS Missouri sailors always had their own bunks, they never had to share with another sailor.� Of course, when we first sailed the ship was so crowded that some of the men had their bunks located at or near their duty stations.� Some of the men even slept in the turrets.

Does she have sonar?� How did she fight against submarines? No and she didn't. Wouldn't be any use equipping a battleship with sonar, they're too loud and you wouldn't be able to hear it anyhow. We didn't have any offensive weapons against submarines; though we did carry helicopters after 1949 so maybe one of our helos might have had some anti-sub weapons on board. We generally had a destroyer escort with us during times of conflict so the destroyers would deal with any subs we encountered.

How long would it take to get the ship underway? (Editor's Note: the questioner was referring to when the ship was on active duty)� The answer to that question is: "It depends."� It depends upon whether we were in a foreign port or our home port, whether we were at a pier or anchored and the big question is whether or not we have all of our crew on board.� If we have to recover personnel from liberty on shore then it could take quite a while to get them all back aboard.� In a foreign port it was common for us to leave the boilers "steaming" in which case, assuming all of our crew are aboard, we could probably take in lines and be underway in about an hour.� If we were at anchor it could even be faster than that because sometimes the ship would actually be giving a few easy revolutions to the screws to take some load off the anchors in a strong current -- essentially the ship is already running, just a matter of weighing the anchors and going.

In our home port where we've had everything shut down and cold the boilers would typically be started around 10PM the night before in order to be ready for a 6AM departure -- so it takes about 8 hours.

The two biggest factors in time to get underway are not really mechanical, per se.�

�� 1.� Getting our crew on board and at their proper duty stations to be underway.�

�� 2. How much of a hurry are we in and how many risks are we willing to take.� A lot of the time involved in getting the boilers to supply steam to the turbines is that the steam is applied gradually to allow the pipes to heat up gently.� That reduces the risk of bursting a pipe or doing other damage to the engine which would be not be good for the ship (or the crew).� If we're in a big hurry and willing to risk some burst pipes then we can throw caution to the wind, apply the steam quickly and get underway that much faster.

In the most desperate of times USS Missouri could probably be maneuverable in as little as an hour from "cold & dark" but that would be taking a LOT of risks with the engineering plant and as far as I know was never attempted.

Does she have bow thrusters?

No. In fact the Navy senior chief I talked with about this said that as far as he knows few if any Navy ships that do.� That's a big part of the reason that the Navy uses tug boats to berth their ships.� Coast Guard ships, on the other hand, almost always do have bow thrusters and they almost always bring themselves to the pier.

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Weapons?

Big guns? The primary battery of the USS Missouri consists of nine 16-inch, 50-caliber guns in three, 3-gun turrets. Each gun can be elevated and fired independently and each gun has an effective range of approximately 46,000 yards (more than 23 miles).

How fast do the big guns fire? A good crew can fire two rounds per minute, per gun.

How are the guns loaded? In very general terms it happens like this:� A projectile is brought up from one of the ammunition handling rooms below on a mechanical hoist. It comes up onto a hinged cradle which when lowered brings the projectile level with the breech of the gun.� A hydraulic rammer pushes the projectile up into the gun, then retracts. A crewman opens the powder door which reveals three powder bags which have been brought up from below on another hoist (similar to a dumb-waiter).� Those three powder bags are pulled down onto the cradle and the hydraulic rammer pushes those up into the gun and then retracts. The powder door is opened again and three more powder bags are pulled down, again the rammer pushes those into the gun. The cradle is raised back to vertical (out of the way) The gun operator closes the breech door, inserts the primer cartridge, turns the barrel switch to "Ready to Shoot" and then when whomever is doing the firing (typically somebody in one of the fire director rooms) is ready to fire, they pull the trigger and away we go.

(Note: I've left out some steps and oversimplified in an effort to make it easy for the average visitor to understand; if you're a sophisticate in these matter I hope you can forgive the simplification)

How much do the powder bags weigh? It varies.� Anywhere from 80 to 110 lbs. apiece.� Which weight of bags we use depends upon what kind of shot we want to make and what kind of projectile we're firing.

Why does the gun come back down after each time it fires? The 16-inch guns can only be loaded at 5 degrees of elevation.� The gun lowers after each shot so the crew can reload for the next shot.

What is that puff of smoke that comes out of the barrel a few seconds after the gun has fired? The guns have a gas ejector in them that uses 175psi of air to blow any excess smoke and soot out the barrel before the breech is opened.� That's so the gun house doesn't fill up with smoke when the crew fires the gun and also to prevent any bits of burning debris from remaining in the barrel where they might prematurely ignite the powder bags of the successive shot.

When she fires her big guns does she move sideways?� No.� That's a common myth, actually, but simple physics bears out the fact that it just doesn't happen.� The ship, fully loaded, displaces about 58,000 tons and the force of nine, 2700 pound, projectiles being fired at 2500 feet per second just isn't nearly enough force to cause a ship that massive, especially one with a draft of 38 feet, to move at all. As one expert put it, if you were to fire all of the guns at the same time, at a perfectly level trajectory, while the ship was sitting on a sheet of ice (little or no friction) then the ship might move about 6 inches.� On the open oceans in combat conditions she didn't move or even heel over significantly when the big guns were fired.� One of the other guides, who served aboard the USS New Jersey, described the sensation aboard ship when the guns fired as a big "tremble."

What does the "50 caliber" mean? The caliber of the big guns relates to the diameter of the barrel as a proportion of its length.� In this case the diameter of the barrel (inside) is 16 inches and the length is about 800 inches.� 800/16=50. Our 5 inch guns are 38 caliber, which tells you that each barrel on those guns is about 190 inches (5x38) or 15.8 feet long.

What kind of "bullets" do the big guns fire? There were two primary kinds of projectile fired by the big guns:

1. An AP (Armor Piercing) round that weighed about 2700 pounds and was used against other ships or hardened concrete targets.� The AP rounds are designed to penetrate more than 28-1/2 feet of reinforced concrete or 16 inches of class A armor.

2. An HC (High Capacity) round that weighed about 1900 pounds and was used for shore bombardment. An HC round generally makes a hole about 20 feet deep and 50 feet in diameter (depending upon what it lands on, of course).

Fun Fact!� On one of my tours I had a gentleman who was a Korean War veteran who had been in the Army.� At one point during his service he was assigned to do gunnery spotting for our guns. He said that one day we were firing on a target that was on top of a hill.� He said our first salvo of shells missed the target, but our second salvo not only took out the target, but took the entire top of the hill off!

Are the projectiles mostly full of explosives?�� No, actually the armor piercing shell only has about 41 pounds of explosives in it and the high capacity round has about 150 lbs in it.� Most of the weight of the shell is in the steel structure of the projectile and in the fusing.� The armor piercing shell also contains a dye pack so that if you miss your target at sea the splash of water is easier to spot (because it would be colored).

How long does it take for the projectiles to arrive at the target?� Depends upon how far away the target is.� At 46,000 yards it takes about 90 seconds for the projectile to arrive at the target.

Did other U.S. Navy ships have the same kind of big guns? �Close, but no.� The Iowa-class were the only ships with the 16-inch, 50-caliber guns.� The South Dakota and North Carolina class battleships had 16-inch guns, but they were only 45-caliber.

Did anybody have bigger guns? Yes, the Japanese floated two battleships during WWII, the sister ships Yamato and Musashi, which carried 18-inch guns. Both of those Japanese battleships were sunk by carrier aircraft before they had a chance for a showdown with any of the Iowa-class battleships. Those were the only two ships ever launched with bigger guns than USS Missouri.� And by ever I mean to this very day.

Can the turrets turn all the way around? �No.� You wouldn't want them to anyhow, the guns protrude about 43 feet from the front of the gun house and if you rotated the turret all the way around backwards you'd hit the superstructure of the ship which wouldn't be good for the gun or the superstructure.� The turrets can rotate thru about 300 degrees range of motion at about 4 degrees per second.

Fun Fact! �The turrets are not actually attached to the ship. If the ship were to capsize (roll over) the turrets would fall out. Of course, if the ship rolls over we aren't all that worried about the turrets at that point anyhow.� The turrets just sit on top of rollers and only the weight of the turrets (about 1700 tons without any ammunition) keeps them in the ship.

Fun Fact #2! The guns as you see them on the ship are facing directly forward but they were never fired that way in real life. There were a couple of reasons for it; for one we have a tactical antenna array on the bow of the ship that blocks turret 1 at least so it wouldn't be good to try and shoot through it. For another firing turret 2's guns over the top of turret 1 isn't going to be a very good experience for the men inside turret 1 as well as potentially affecting the projectiles that turret 1 is firing.

5-inchers? The USS Missouri was originally equipped with ten twin mounts of 5-inch, 38-caliber guns, five mounts port and five on the starboard.� During modernization in 1986, four of the 5-inch mounts were removed to make room for the Tomahawk and Harpoon missile launchers.� The 5-inch guns have an effective range of about 9 miles.

Were the 5-inch guns used against other ships?� They could be, but historically never were. Their primary function during World War II was for anti-aircraft. By the time of the Korean War the jet age had dawned and the 5-inch guns weren't as effective against the fast jets. At that point they came to be used more for shore bombardment and other tasks.

Does the Missouri carry cruise missiles? Well, not anymore, but yes we did.� USS Missouri carries eight armored box launchers (ABLs) each with four Tomahawk cruise missiles. During Desert Storm we fired 28 of our 32 Tomahawks. Interesting fact about the Tomahawks, they are the only thing on the ship that we cannot re-supply at sea.� They have to be loaded onto the ship with a big crane and to do that we have to be in port. Once we've fired our 32 missiles, that's all there is until we pull into port somewhere to reload.

Did Missouri have the Phalanx system on board? Did and do. We sailed in 1986 with four of the Phalanx, CIWS (Close-In Weapons System) units on board.� When we decommissioned the Navy took them away to use on other ships and has only given 2 of them back to us (so far).

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Ship's History?

When was she built? �Trick question.� Construction began when her keel was laid January 6th, 1941 (yes, 11 months BEFORE the attack on Pearl Harbor).� She was launched January 29th, 1944 and commissioned June 10th, 1944.

Where was she built? Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York.

Ship's sponsor? �Mary Margaret Truman, then 19 years old.

First captain? Her first captain was Captain William M. Callaghan.

When was she decommissioned? She was decommissioned for the first time in February 1955.� She was recommissioned in May 1986 and decommissioned for the last time in March 1992.

Last captain? Her last captain was Captain Albert Lee Kaiss. Captain Kaiss was our first commanding officer after the recommissioning in 1986, had to step aside for health reasons after about 5 weeks, then (fully recovered) reassumed command in 1990 and was our commanding officer until decommissioning in March of 1992.

How many wars did she fight in? 3. World War II, Korea and Desert Storm.

Didn't she fight in Vietnam? No, the only Iowa-class battleship that was active for Vietnam was the USS New Jersey (BB-62)

Wasn't she run aground once? Yes, in January 1950 she was run aground off Hampton Roads.� Captain William Brown was court-martialed as a result, and never commanded a ship again before he retired. Contrary to rumor there was no serious or lasting damage to the ship as a result of the grounding; thanks in part to the quick actions of some of Missouri's engineers who shut the engines down before the intake valves could completely clog with mud.

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Flight Deck?

What are those planes on the back of the ship? (Editor's Note: The questioner is looking at the model of how the ship looked in 1945) The ones on the model are Curtis SC-1 Seahawks and they were used for reconnaissance and gunnery spotting.� When you're shooting at a target 20+ miles away it's not always easy to tell if you hit the target or if you missed long or short.� The planes could be flown over the target, watch the rounds land, then radio back to the ship and tell us if we're 50 yards long or 30 yards to the left or whatever.

Did the planes carry bombs? They could carry small bombs but in practice they were never used for attack.

How did they land on the ship? They didn't, actually.� They're float planes so they can land on the water. The open ocean is generally a bit rough for a single-seat float plane, though, so when it came time to recover the planes the ship would be put into semi-circle maneuver.� The wake of the ship would tend to make the water within that semi-circle relatively flat and the float plane could land on that relatively flat water.� It would then taxi up to the stern of the ship, a crane would lower a hook down to the plane. The pilot would climb out of his seat, grab that hook, attach it to his plane and then the crane would lift the plane up out of the water and put it back on the catapult.

(Note: I've simplified the process a bit here to make it easier to understand)

What about helicopters? After 1949 we operated helicopters off our fantail. The first helicopter came about before our catapults had been removed and we didn't room for it on the fantail so they landed it atop turret 1.

Did it still use helicopters in the Gulf War? �Yes, though our primary gunnery spotting tool was actually the Pioneer UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) a remote-controlled drone that has a video-camera on it.� We still have one of our Pioneers on board today.

WWII History?

Did she ever fight against other ships? No.� At one point there were thoughts that she, and her sisters, might have a confrontation against the massive Japanese battleship Yamato, but that battle never materialized and Yamato was sunk by American carrier aircraft in April of 1945.

I heard USS Missouri was hit by a kamikaze, true? True, true. She was hit twice.� The first time was the more dramatic of the two hits and the dent from that attack remains to this day. The kamikaze struck the starboard side, just below the main deck near where turret 3 is. Some of the plane (and the pilot) ended up on the deck, the rest (including his unexploded bomb) fell harmlessly into the ocean. The hit looked bad, but the damage control crews had the fire out in about 3 minutes and when the smoke cleared the kamikaze pilot was the only fatality. Missouri suffered no significant damage from the attack.

The second strike was actually a bit more damaging. The pilot almost missed the ship but his wing clipped the stern crane on the Missouri before the plane went into the sea behind Missouri. The explosion sent debris up onto the deck causing a couple of injuries and tearing some holes in the gun bucklers ("Bloomers") of turret 3.

What date was the formal surrender? The surrender ceremony occurred on September 2nd, 1945.� The Japanese had actually surrendered a couple of weeks earlier on August 15th but the actual signing of the surrender was Sept. 2nd.

Did Emperor Hirohito sign the surrender documents?� No.� The emperor is considered to be a god and gods don't surrender to mortals.� Foreign Minister Shigemitsu and General Umezu signed on behalf of The Empire of Japan and the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces respectively.

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Korean War History?

How many tours did Missouri serve in the Korean War? Two.� She received 5 battle stars during the Korean War and fired almost 7,000 rounds from her main guns.

I heard her captain was killed during the Korean War? Not killed. Captain Warner Edsall died of a heart attack on the bridge while navigating into Sasebo harbor (Japan) the day after USS Missouri completed her second tour of action in Korea. The executive officer, Commander James North, took command of Missouri until Captain Robert Brodie was assigned to replace Captain Edsall a week later.

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Gulf War History? (Operation Desert Storm)

How many Tomahawk missiles did Missouri fire during Operation Desert Storm? 28.

Did we use the big guns in the Gulf War? �Yes.� We fired a little over 750 rounds of main gun ammunition during the Gulf War bombarding targets at Khafji, Kuwait City and Faylakah Island.

Didn't the Iraqis shoot a missile at USS Missouri?� Yes, it's believed they fired two Silkworm missiles at her during the Gulf War.� One fell harmlessly into the sea but the second missile actually came quite close to the Missouri, passing behind her stern before being destroyed by a Sea Dart anti-missile missile fired from the nearby HMS Gloucester.

I heard that she was hit by "friendly fire" during the Gulf War? First, I'll submit that whomever named it "friendly fire" never took any. That said, yes, the USS Jarrett hit us with a couple of rounds from her Phalanx one of which penetrated through a bulkhead and embedded in an interior passageway of the ship. One sailor on the Missouri was struck in the neck by some flying shrapnel and suffered minor injuries.

Another round struck the ship on the forward funnel passing completely through it. �(Thanks to Sgt. Paul Jones for this information)

The official story is that the USS Jarrett's Phalanx engaged the USS Missouri's chaff (a countermeasure against missiles - chaff is basically strips of tinfoil; they're fired into the air away from the ship and distract the incoming missile) and that some stray rounds struck the Missouri. Many knowledgeable folks are skeptical of this account, however, as the Jarrett was reportedly over 2 miles away at the time and the characteristics of chaff are such that Phalanx normally wouldn't regard it as a threat and engage it. There is no dispute that the rounds that struck USS Missouri did come from USS Jarrett and that it was an accident. The suspicion is that a Phalanx operator on USS Jarrett may have accidentally fired off a few rounds manually, but there isn't any evidence I'm aware of to support that theory.

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USS Missouri Today?

Where is the USS Missouri today? She's located at Fox 5 pier in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Is she open for tours? Yes!

Can I go see the Engine Room? �Not on your own, but if you take the Explorer's Tour they go down to the #4 engine room.

Can I go into the Turret? Not yet, no, but there is a ladder that lets you climb partially into the gun house on Turret 3 and the lights on so you can see inside. Also there is a very nice model of the insides of the turret currently on display on the starboard side of Turret 3.� We're hoping to have the booth of Turret 1 open for visitors sometime later this year.

Why are our tax dollars supporting an old ship? They aren't, actually.� The USS Missouri is entirely operated by the USS Missouri Memorial Association, a non-profit group whose sole purpose is to restore, preserve and present the USS Missouri for people to visit and enjoy.� They receive no tax dollars and are entirely supported by donations, the admission fees for the tours and the proceeds from whatever folks happen to buy at the snack bars, gift shops or even their on-line store.� Also from folks who join the "Friends of the Mighty Mo" which is a wonderful group.

Where can I get books about the USS Missouri? There are quite a few, I have some listed on my USS Missouri Books page, here.

Which tour should I take? Depends upon what you want to see.� The Chief's tour is the basic tour -- takes about an hour and takes you all around the main deck, including inside to see berthing areas, officer's wardroom and such. It's only a $6 upgrade from the general admission and generally it's worth the extra money. You get a guide who can answer all of your questions and you get to go into the Combat Engagement Center which you do not get to go into by yourself.

The Explorer's Tour and the Captain's Tour are each about a $33 upgrade from general admission, and both are 90 minutes.� The basic difference is that the Explorer's Tour goes from the main deck, down and the Captain's Tour goes from the main deck, up.� If you want to see the insides of the ship, peek into the engine rooms and such, then the Explorer's tour is for you.� If you'd rather go up into the superstructure, see the bridge and finish with snacks in the Captain's in-port stateroom then the Captain's tour is your choice.

Where are the other Iowa-class battleships now? �

USS Iowa (BB-61) is in San Francisco, CA but will probably be leaving soon, perhaps for a new home in Stockton, CA
USS New Jersey (BB-62) is in Camden, NJ.�
USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is at the Nauticus Museum in Norfolk, VA.

How did she get to Hawaii; was she sailed under her own power? No, she was towed here in June of 1998 by a ocean-going tugboat named the "Sea Victory."

Fun Fact!� The Sea Victory was also involved in towing our sister ship USS New Jersey to her current home in Camden, New Jersey.

Could she be reactivated and sent back to fight? Technically, yes, if the Navy wanted to invest that much time & money in getting her engines and weapons running again. Then they'd have to load up on fuel, ammunition, supplies and find about 1500 men to run her. It's extremely unlikely to happen, but for the record USS Missouri is floating, is basically sea-worthy and was an active-duty combat ship just 10 years or so ago.�

One big obstacle would be the Tomahawk cruise missiles.� The Navy doesn't use the ABL (Armored Box Launchers) much anymore, it's mostly done with VLS (Vertical Launching System) launchers.� Somehow they'd have to retrofit the Missouri with VLS launchers, which would be an expensive and challenging project.

Did the tour guides who are there today actually serve on the Missouri when she was active? Many of them did, yes.

Did you?� No. My service aboard Missouri started long after she was decommissioned as a Navy ship. I'm just a volunteer tour guide who loves the ship and enjoys sharing her with visitors.

Do the Tour Guides get paid? �Some do, some don't.� There are a number of tour guides who are employees of the USS Missouri Memorial Association and obviously they get paid.� Other tour guides, like myself, are volunteers.� There just aren't enough volunteers to fully man the ship all of the time so it's necessary for the Association to have the employees on staff to make sure there are always guides available to accommodate our visitors.

What's new on/at the ship? (as of January 23rd, 2006) �