On day two of our Baltimore trip we decided to visit the Maritime Museums. This consists of 4 ships that you can walk through, sometimes there are demonstrations as well. Little Monkey really enjoyed these ships! I think she enjoyed them more than the Aquarium even! I enjoyed them to, thanks to my little friend Dramamine. (laugh all you want, I feel sea sick just looking at the harbor!) Seriously though, I get sea sick so easily, my husband will never forget our first trip to Jamestown and visiting the boat replicas that are docked on the James River, yes a river. I was on the first boat for less than five minutes before I had to leave. He laughed for a long time, I can't help it, I can read while I am riding on a twisty road in a car, but put me on water and it is all over!
The first ship we visited was the USS Constellation, a Civil War ship. This was pretty awesome, I could show you a whole post worth of pictures but I won't. The craftsmanship was beautiful, especially in the captains quarters.
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| Old Glory |
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| demonstrating the guns (not cannon, as they corrected me) It was so loud! |
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| The buffet in the captains quarters, there was a huge walnut table and chairs, a sideboard, and these padded benches, it was like a dinning room in a home. |
The second ship we viewed was the lightship Chesapeake. Lightships were employed to stay near the shoals and act as a light house for ships. It was extremely boring, and extremely dangerous work. Several light ships were rammed by larger ships because they didn't see them in time during storms. I think the most interesting thing about them, each ship had a dog on board. Apparently this was not really common in that time period, but it was standard on the lightships.
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| The wheel of the Chesapeake, it was solid brass and shiny, it begged to be touched, but you are warned not to touch any brass on this ship. |
Our third ship was probably the most interesting. This is the USS Torsk a submarine. Little Monkey thought this was so fun, it was more "her size". She had a good laugh the first couple of times Hubby and had to navigate the doors. I have seen video of sailors running the length of sub jumping through these doors, I honestly don't know how they do it.
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| both engines had names, this was Lil Abner, for some reason this made me laugh. |
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| extremely tight quarters, those beds to not look comfy, plus you are sharing it with someone else, splitting your shifts, you have it for so many hours, then someone else does. |
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| Imagine fitting through these? Little Monkey could just stand up in the doorway, so imagine me at 5'9 and Hubby at 6'2" trying to get through them. (smiles) |
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| not sure what you would call this room, it is where everything happens |
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| the torpedo's, notice the bunks above the torpedo's? Not the way I want to sleep! |
Next we stopped at the 7 Foot Lighthouse! I have never seen a lighthouse that is this style. Originally it was out on a shoal in the bay, with water all around. Three men lived here splitting the shifts and duties involved in the keeping of a lighthouse. It is really pretty, inside it is a museum, with lots of great information on Chesapeake Bay lighthouses, there are quite a few too!
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| This was someones joke, it was at the bottom of the light house. |
The last ship we viewed was the USCGC Taney. This was a large Coast Guard ship. We didn't have a lot of time on this one, but it was still interesting to see how they lived on board. It was much more relaxed seeming than the submarine or even the lightship.
weapons, there were a whole lot of them!
This is what the men would have worn on the ship each day.
Wheel house, where the navigating and steering take place.
There was just so much to see. Seriously, I could show you tons about each of these ships, we so enjoyed visiting them! The Taney also has a small museum and video about the Dec. 7 attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Taney was actually there and fired on Japanese planes. I would definitely recommend seeing these museums, they are so interesting and great for all ages!
Melissa
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