Hi, I’m Ryan Szimanski, curator for Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial. Welcome aboard USS New Jersey, the most decorated battleship in U.S. Naval History!

New Jersey served her country during four separate commissions from 1943-1991, and was a home to an estimated 55,000 sailors and marines over that time period. She is the most decorated battleship ever built with won nine battle stars during her service in World War Two, four during the Korean War, three in the Vietnam War, and three more during the 1980’s and 1990’s as part of President Reagan’s 600-ship navy.

New Jersey is also the longest battleship ever built at 887’7”, with a width of just over 108’ which just allows her to barely make it through the Panama Canal with less than a foot of clearance on either side. She was built just down river at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where men and women from New Jersey and Philadelphia welded and riveted the ship’s 57,500 tons of steel. She was launched on December 7, 1942, a year to the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor and commissioned on May 23, 1943.

Battleship New Jersey is a warship, but not all warships are battleships. Battleships were the large, Big-Gun capital ships of the navy. No other type of ship had bigger guns or heavier armor. Most battleships are comparatively slow but New Jersey is the fastest battleship ever built. Battleships use BB as their designator and New Jersey is BB-62, the 62nd battleship in the US Navy numbering system.

Warships are designed in “Classes”. All of the ships in a class are almost identical to each other when built, there are four sister-ships in New Jersey’s class, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Collectively they are known as the Iowa-class, since that was the first of the 4 authorized. The Iowas were the last class of battleships that the American Navy ever completed and the last in service in the world. Today there are still American warships, but they lack the big guns and thick armor that battleships have, in favor of the more modern missile systems that New Jersey had retrofitted in the 1980’s.

While no more battleships are in active service there are 9 battleships left in the world which operate as museums. Mikasa is in Japan, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Alabama, and New Jersey are all in their home states, and Iowa is in California, Missouri is in Hawaii, and Wisconsin is in Virgina. There are also many other museum warships around the country and world. If you enjoy your tour today be sure to look them up when you plan your next trip.

Welcome aboard the world's greatest battleship, the most decorated, fastest, or longest battleship ever built. Now before we go any further here are some things you should know:

Walk, don’t run as you move through the ship and Watch your head and feet for obstructions along the way. The ship was designed for a crew of professional sailors and has many unexpected obstacles.

You may take photographs and videos of anything you’d like, but don’t walk and photograph at the same time. There are a lot of things to bump into here.

Please use the handrails on the ladders. Many people find it safer and easier to face the ladders as they go down them.

It is safer for kids to climb the ladders themselves than to have you carry them. Please let them climb the ladders themselves.

The ship is a memorial to our armed forces and also a nationally significant artifact. In a normal museum you would have to look at artifacts like this inside glass cases but here you can interact with, touch, and go inside the artifact. Please be respectful so future generations can continue to experience the world’s greatest battleship.

And most importantly have fun, ask questions, and learn what it was like to live on board a US Navy warship in the 20th century.