Big Mamie (BB-59)

South Dakota-class battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59) served 1942-47, a career that was short but eventful. She takes credit for the first and last American 16" shells fired during the War, participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, and later fought in the Pacific, most notably at Okinawa, Iwo Jima and bombarding the Japanese home islands.

She became a museum ship in 1965 and has several small museums within her as well, such as the PT Boat Museum and a memorial to the radar picket ships. What makes her stand out is that because she was decommissioned right after the war and never modernized, she is still in her wartime configuration more or less. The only major pieces she's missing are her catapults for launching OS2 Kingfishers.

Cropping this was annoying because she's too wide for a proper 5x7 portrait but too tall and not wide enough for a proper landscape.

Fall River, Massachusetts