United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum & USS Salem — Attraction in Quincy

Having been to Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA many times we decided to go see a ship we hadn't seen before. The first thing we went to see was the aft main battery. I was actually surprised that they let you inside the turret and have a partial hands on experience with some of the instruments used to aim the guns. We then took a walk around the deck of the ship. Sadly we quickly found that the ship was covered in rust. I even walked up to a container on the wall that had the paint chipping off and took a small piece off that had already been stripped almost completely off the container. While examining the chip of paint I realized that the container had a couple of layers of rust and paint alternating. This piece of a previously metal container was completely rusted and brittle. However, once below deck the rusting was obviously much better. The museum on the ship was amazing, and a good surprise to see. On the other decks there were a few spots that broke the immersion of being on a WWII navy ship. The local Boy Scouts apparently visit the ship fairly often and in some areas of the ship there are signs and messages for the scouts that stopped the flow of walking around and figuring out what area of the ship you're in. I really wish the great veterans and crew, who try so hard to keep the ship in the best shape they can with what little funds they have good luck and hope they get more help to do this ship justice. I hope they can gather more money to really restore this ship to the condition it deserves to be in. With just a few grants or generous donations, maybe it can be sent to dry dock in Boston to get the...

Went here to see the USS Salem and it was great. Beautiful old Navy ship that is being maintained by a very small group of individuals who are battling time and the elements everyday to keep this ship from rotting away and they do so mostly on what folks pay to take a tour of the ship and donations I was told that they do recieve some money from the city of Quincy,MA but unlike some of the other ships that I toured in other places they get no state or federal funding to help keep the Salem from rusting away and that's a shame. But they have done a great job with what they have there are many areas to tour on board and some excellent display areas of the history of not only of the Salem but her 2 sister ships as well. While your walking you might run into one of the volunteers as I did in a couple of different places and they will stop what there doing and answer questions you might have and tell you about what there doing as I found when I was walking along inside the ship and happened upon one of the volunteers printing up the maps they hand out and he was doing so on the original printing press that was on the ship we had great conversation about it. If you are in the Boston area and want to see some naval history go see the USS Salem yes she might not be as pretty as some of the others but she is solid and has a...

Awesome!!!!!!! Yes it's tucked in the back of an industrial area, just go on south street and look for the sign on the east side of the road just south of Kilroy Car Wash. The ship was awesome to explore and is in close to original condition. Lots of areas are open including No. 3 engine room, CiC and 2 out of 3 gun houses. Some areas have been well restored, lots of the outside needs work. I'm sure the volunteers work as hard as they can fighting the elements. I really liked the engine room as you can get access to pretty much all of it, even the back side of the boiler and the inlet valve for the condenser. Some of the stuff that is really hard to see on other museum ships. I spoke with John, the former marine crew member who mans the museum. What an awesome guy and thanks so much for talking to me for an hour and telling your stories and showing us around. I donated a few bucks more than admission. I really hope this ship gets the funding it needs, there were only maybe half a dozen groups who visited on a beautiful Saturday. Hopefully more people visit so the ship can get the funding needed to...