While staging in Virginia, we took the time to travel to Norfolk and visit the Nauticus Museum.
Nauticus is quite the experience! It’s not just a nautical history museum, but also the home of the last battleship the Unites States built, the Wisconsin BB-64.
Even better, thanks to The Boy’s EAA membership from his free Young Eagles flight and ASTC reciprocal benefits, we were able to visit for free!
Nauticus Museum
The museum at Nauticus could be divided into roughly 3 sections:
- A hall of models showcasing different naval ships throughout the eras. With special attention spent on historically significant battles and leaps in naval technology.
- A hall dedicated to the history of the Norfolk area. From pre-history to the present day, and what the City of Norfolk is doing to try to revitalize the Chesapeake Bay and bring back its historic biodiversity.
- And a large exhibit showcasing how the Navy is changing to be a better steward of the environment.
While we were there, there was a lot of construction and rearrangement going on. Some of these exhibits may be different.
The Battleship
One of the biggest draws of this location is the battleship. Seeing videos of these massive ships in action does nothing to showcase the sheer size of these behemoths. The museum offers guided tours for an extra fee. For the price of admission, however, one can simply tour nearly the whole ship on a self-guided tour. The ship is staffed with volunteers who served on the ship and love to tell stories and answer questions.
We easily spent an hour walking from one end of the ship to the other. We stuck our heads into wardrooms, looking in the crew bunks, exploring the galley and kitchen, and just marveling.
Inside, the ship is cramped. As big as she is, these vessels didn’t have a lot of automation. They had an average crew size of 1,300! The amount of logistics required to keep these people fed and healthy, let alone keep the ship running, filled every available space.
Nauticus is a must-see for anyone touring Virginia, especially if you’ve got a couple of Navy buffs or just a couple of kids who like big guns!