Our Pack’s overnight was at Battleship Cove. It’s a historical military site where the USS Massachusetts, which is easily the main attraction, resides. There’s also the USS Lionfish, a submarine; the USS Fall River, a cruiser; and the USS Joseph P Kennedy, a destroyer. They’ve also got a PT boat exhibit.
If you’ve never been on a battleship, then I highly recommend doing so. It’s an impressive experience. The scale of the ship alone is enough to make the mind boggle. The tech specs are equally mind boggling: like the 16-inch canons that could hit targets 22-miles away (it’s just a big bullet- not a propelled object). The rounds were packed with 5000 lbs of gun powder and no one was allowed on deck when they were being fired. Yet the ship was designed such that when they were fired, no one felt the recoil on the ship. They also had 5 inch guns capable of shooting up to 5 miles away. The ship itself was the better part of 800 feet long. When in service, the fuel tanks held nearly 2 millions gallons of crude for fuel and the ship could run flat out for 9 days on that supply.
All of the Scouts who came enjoyed the day. The weather was perfect and it was something most of them hadn’t seen before. We had gone once before with our own kids and they’d also been taken there by the Grandparents. So they were veterans of the ships. But sleeping overnight on the battleship was a new experience.
The overnight program was well organized and well run. Once they were closed to day visitors, the overnighters were given some historical orientation about the ship, including a chance to talk to the (I believe) last living crew member of the USS Massachusetts whom is 90 years old. For an old timer, he still had plenty of spunk. More than enough to keep a bunch of grade schoolers in line while he was talking and answering questions.
Speaking of which, we were 25 of about 550 people staying over night. The vast majority of which were Cub Scouts. People were there from all over the Northeast. The ship was built to house like 3500 people, so we had plenty of room.
After the orientation, there was a dinner followed by a few different presentations including a Morse Code class, a knot tying class, a 1940’s cartoon time featuring Disney cartoons as well as a story teller. There were no obligations to attend anything and we were free to wander as much or as little of the ship as we pleased. The boy tried his hand at knot tying, but lost interest when his friends did, so we moved on from their. The military story telling time entertained them though.
Aside from that, the boy and his buddies had a grand time aiming gun turrets and “shooting” cars and signs and whatever else tickled their fancy. They weren’t supposed to run because it’s a battleship. Things were built to handle the rigors of war, so the ravages of a bunch of grade schoolers was, eh, child’s play. I was amused to notice every couple of minutes one kid or another limping or holding a side that slammed into some unforgiving piece of metal. They didn’t do much running after that. Experience really is a good teacher.
As the night wore on, the crew closed more and more of the ship down, limiting where the kids could get to and thus opportunities for problems. Officially, lights out was at 11, but a few of ours were done at 10. There were warning bulge calls at 15, 10 and 5 minutes to lights out. The ones who fell asleep early didn’t budge. The bunks we slept in weren’t luxury accommodations, but they were good enough for tired visitors.
They certainly sufficed for tired kids.
Reveille was a 6:30 this morning. Most of the kids were already waking up by then. From there, we spent a little time on deck before we had to wait in our bunk area for the crew to escort us to breakfast. After that, the exodus began.
The ship served in several campaigns, but never lost any crew members. In fact, the only “major” damage it took was to its hull on the front side. Before we left, the boy wanted to see what the damaged area looked like. After a bit of searching (it’s a big ship) we located the spot. They’d preserved a piece of the plate with the hole from the projectile that penetrated it. Even that was heady stuff to look at, since the hole was big enough for me to stick my head through. Despite that, it never posed any serious danger for the ship itself.
Satisfied with the find, he was then ready to head home. He hadn’t had enough to eat at breakfast, so he was hoping to have a little extra when we arrived at the house.
That was our overnight at Battleship Cove.