The Independence Sea Port Museum is worth the visit. For a start it’ll make you go down to the Delaware River which is huge and filled with history. Most exciting of all you have the simply epic USS New Jersey across on the other side, while to the left is a combined rail and vehicle bridge which reminded Rosie of Golden Gate, and to the right the twin funnels of SS United States taking you back to the golden age of travel.
The museum itself is well thought out with a variety of naval, ship construction, and social history displays related to Philly’s maritime connections. As an aside, if travelling by car from the airport look out for the Philadelphia Naval Yard about half way to town. It used to contain multiple retired carriers from the Cold War but still has rows of smaller ships – destroyers/frigates – in numbers that would shame the RN.
One particular exhibit caught our attention. It was a box representing one in which a black runaway slave spent 18 hours to be carried to Pennsylvania and freedom in the C19th, again making the point that all men being created equal a century earlier was guff. Rosie just fitted.
However, the high spot is the two vessels you can visit, the cruiser USS Olympia from the C19th and the USS Becuna, a submarine which did five war patrols in the Pacific before moving onto listening to Russians until the 1960s. The common theme of both was work hard at school and become an officer. In the Becuna that apparently meant on patrol, unlike the enlisted men, you could enjoy a shower for one minute a week, whilst on the Olympia it meant you lived in the most civilised space I’ve seen on a warship.
The Becuna was not quite up to the same standard however better than hot bunking…
And here are some more shots to sate you. Rest assured Rosie enjoyed it – particularly the ice cream and lemonade in the sun.
