USS Turner Joy Museum Ship, Bremerton

Visited USS Turner Joy Museum Ship, Bremerton 

few weeks back.

 When a naval warship ends its glorious active journey,  should it be dismantled? Probably, the better option is to make it a museum for gen-next . This will give people some insight that how navy works to protect a nation and how the naval operations conducted in past era . 

Precisely the same thing happened with The USS Turner Joy DD-951, American Naval Ship of destroyer class. It is now converted into a museum and stationed at Bremerton, a small island, one hour away from the city of Seattle . The place is accessible by ferry as well  by road from Seattle. 

We visited this museum recently , it gave us an idea that how big naval powers used to protect nation’s  supremacy in the sea some 50-60 years back. 

Technically speaking , she  is 418 foot long naval destroyer.  She is one of the most complete naval museum ships in the US offering a unique historical naval adventure taking visitors back to the Vietnam war.

In August 1964 North Vietnamese naval forces attacked the USS Turner Joy and the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. That led to the United States' increased involvement in the Vietnam War.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was the "match that lit the fire," and remained a major turning point for the United States in terms of its involvement in the Vietnam War. The incident mobilized public opinion to the point that the Congress of the United States approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, thereby opening the door to and dramatically escalating the American combat presence in Vietnam.

This war ship was named after Admiral Charles Turner Joy, had her keel laid in the fall of 1957 in Seattle, Washington, by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company. She was subsequently launched in the spring of 1958 and commissioned in mid-summer, 1959. Commander Ralph S. Wentworth was the first to command her bridge. The ship was the last of the Forrest Sherman Class destroyers built.

This fully restored destroyer ship offers visitors a self guided tour including a Prisoner of War (POW) room in remembrance of the US military men held in captivity during the Vietnam War.

What we loved during our visit was amazing photo opportunity of ship as well as beautiful marina area. Access was good - down to a boiler and engine room, up to the flying bridge and pilot house, plus a nice bonus stop on the signal bridge. The commander’s cabin , meeting rooms, cashier’s cabin, canteen as well as mess area , all weather decks, plus the interior of two 5”’mounts took us to a different era . Of course  the gun mount interior is extremely tight. found it very squeezing to get around the breech and loading trays of the guns.

Interesting to see the way input was made by analog dials the coordinates of what you were firing on, and then the computer would tell you the exact angle and elevation to put the gun at to hit there. Or, even better, it would track other ships automatically by radar or visual feed. The radar antiaircraft and anti-ship system had been iterated throughout World War II, and this system was the culmination. It could produce firing coordinates within two seconds of acquiring the target. The ship was designed for a maximum range of 14.7 miles, with ten-yard accuracy at distances up to twelve miles - and said to regularly achieved .

Combat Information Center of this war ship  looks like something from a sci-fi story, and then we turned and saw the plaque explaining that the designer had been good friends with Lieutenant Robert Heinlein.

The ship is in decent condition and we explored a lot during our three hour long visit .