October, 2022
We visited the Naval Undersea Museum (submarines) the other day, north of Bremerton.
Today we visited a different museum, the Puget Sound Navy Museum (no submarines) right in the heart of downtown Bremerton and, of course, right near the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
The Naval Shipyard here is huge and busy, but this museum doesn’t talk about current work in the shipyard or current technology. The museum is all about history. It’s a large two-story building. It is one of the most amazing museums I’ve ever been in. But this was my third visit to this museum so I didn’t take many photos. On my other visits here, I had a film camera and I haven’t scanned any of those photo prints yet.
So let me share just a few photos here from this visit.
This first photo below is of a model of the 1944-built USS Bremerton (we are in the town of Bremerton after all). At 673-feet long and 70 feet wide, the real USS Bremerton had a human complement of 1,042 officers and enlisted personnel. She was active in the Pacific in WWII and was active in the Korean War zone, and was decommissioned in 1960.
Photo below, a restored 1958 two-cylinder steam engine used on board many Navy ships back “in the day”.
Photo below … a 1943 MK V diving helmet. This diving helmet and others like it were used extensively by shipyard employees throughout most of the 20th century.
Below … a Thacher’s calculating instrument, invented in 1897. These instruments were used by shipyard employees, machinists, architects, and engineers, to perform mathematical calculations with answers to 5 decimal places. Who needs an electronic digital calculator anyway?
Below … September, 1891, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is officially designated as such.
Below … April, 1896, construction on Drydock #1 is complete. The all-wood design and construction cost slightly more than $400,000.00.
Below … July, 1917, “Submarine 0-2”, the first ship built at this shipyard.
Three photos below … 1917-1918, during World War I, this shipyard built many Navy ships including 25 submarine chasers, 2 minesweepers, and 1,700 small Navy boats.
Photo below … 1935, construction on Building 431 is completed, making it the largest machine shop west of the Mississippi River. And yes, it’s the ENTIRE HUGE building in the photo below … four stories tall. The Navy machined their own parts … engines, prop shafts, hull plating, electronics, beds, kitchens, etc. If a ship needed it, they made it here.
Below … 1941-1942, this Navy shipyard repaired and modernized the five remaining battleships after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Below … 1941-1945, throughout World War II, nearly a third of the entire USA Navy fleet worldwide was serviced at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.
Rest assured, this museum did not simply show photos. It has mock ups of crew quarters, officers quarters, kitchens, engine rooms, pumps, hydraulics, communication systems, heating and cooling systems, everything that the people on board needed. The museum is super … go there if you’re ever near Bremerton.
Fresh drinking water. A ship on the ocean doesn’t have much fresh drinking water around, unless it rains. The ship described in the museum had four steam distilling units. Each unit produced 400,000 gallons of fresh water every day … total of 1,600,000 gallons of fresh water daily. With about 1,000 people on board, that about 1,600 gallons of water per person. But keep in mind that the engines need fresh water, cooking and washing uses fresh water. The steam distilling units created fresh water by boiling salt water and turning it into steam. This process kills bacteria and separates the salt from the water. The steam is then condensed and distributed throughout the ship.
Below … this next exhibit wasn’t here in the museum when I had visited several years ago. I think of this technology as modern, but gosh, I guess it has become “history”! This exhibit showed how a 3D printer works, a three-dimensional printer … how it can create an object out of whatever kind of liquid you’d like to use … plastic, chocolate, liquid metal.
Below … and then the exhibit showed a bolt and a nut … and said they are almost as strong as a metal bolt and nut, and they can be created in seconds/minutes onboard the ship, and be any size/dimension wanted. Amazing.
And then right near the end of the route through the museum, I came upon the exhibit below that I’d seen before but am so impressed by it. It talked about jet planes and aircraft carriers and how all of that works. There was video and physical samples of various devices, tires, catapult pieces, etc.
And then there were these two seats from a two-seater fighter jet … pilot and co-pilot seats! I sat in one of them (no photo). I was surprised how comfortable they were, really comfortable. I could have taken a nap. But I bet if I’d been inside the jet, looking through the canopy, and roaring down the deck of an aircraft carrier at a billion miles an hour, I bet I would not be napping!
This was fun, and fascinating. The people who staff the museum are exceptionally knowledgeable and extraordinarily nice and welcoming and helpful with information, and yet they leave you alone if you’d prefer that.
Thanks for coming along on this brief tour of the Puget Sound Navy Museum. There was so much to see here! Please check out their website, especially the link to “Exhibits”.
And then, at the end of the day, after spending plenty of time in this museum, my friends and I headed back to our two neighboring campsites at Illahee State Park on the outskirts of Bremerton and near the shores of Puget Sound … and to another evening around our campfire. How can life be so perfect?!
This is a really interesting museum! I find so much about ships to be photogenic, and obviously so do you!
Pretty much anything on or around water, eh? Thanks Dawn. 🙂
I was in the Navy just after the Korean war and was on the Bremerton in the Pacific in 1954, but we saw no action. This was SO COOL to see that model of the ship and to read about the history of that shipyard. Thank you.
You are welcome! I bet you have stories to tell. Glad you got home safe and sound, Greg.
Had no idea how a 3D printer worked, but this got my curiosity up and so I went online and learned a whole bunch of stuff. Fascinating. There are 3D printers that are as big as a huge building and that can create really big things — ha! now that’s scientific “really big”. This was great.
Me too, Tim. I know some digital stuff, but not 3D printer stuff.
LOL! I loved that “really big” reference. Obviously very scientific. 🙂
Great subject matter and a very interesting blog. Make me want to add this one to my bucket list. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Vernon. There’s also the submarine base over on one of the islands nearby that you’d love, I’d bet. If you ever get over here, let me know and I’d be happy to share lots more info. Nice to hear from you. 🙂
My daughter was one of the first women to serve onboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower (in the late 1990’s?) and she was onboard when the planes from the ship dropped bombs in combat in Iraq, I think maybe around the year 2000. She loved being on that “boat”, as she called it. The worst part was the massive news media blitz that wouldn’t leave anyone alone who went ashore at any point continually asking how it was for women on board. She told us that mostly she just smiled and waved and said nothing to the media folks, as did the guys on board as well. Most all of the crew had the attitude that everyone was simply doing their job and trusting each other. I shared this blog post with her, she loves it! She retired from the Navy just recently.
Wow, I bet your daughter has tons of memories and stories! Please thank her for being one of those first women onboard USA Navy ships/submarines. I like that she called it a “boat”. I know there were a few problems and concerns with women being on ships early on, but from what other friends of mine (in addition to you) have told me, is that almost everyone just did their jobs, and the problems were only with a very few folks. The media made a bigger issue/problem with that than there actually was. My best to your daughter!
Great history. Even tho I don’t like military/war stuff, this was really interesting. And thank you to other readers for YOUR comments. Sure adds more to the whole picture. Those two jet seats didn’t look particularly comfortable, good to know that they are/were for the pilots back then. And yes, LOL, being shot out of cannon down the runway of an aircraft carrier would not encourage napping! 🙂
Ha! Yes, “shot out of a cannon” indeed. Sometimes I wonder what it feels like to be launched from the deck of an aircraft carrier. But I really don’t want to know.
Very impressive. Both how you showed us and talked about the museum and exhibits, and the navy personnel and the history. No wonder you’ve been through the museum more than once.
Thanks Marge. Thank you. 🙂 The museum was great. I’ll probably go again.
I’ve seen Navy ships coming and going as I’ve traveled up and down Puget Sound on my comparatively little boat (28 feet). I stayed in the public Bremerton city marina once and went on board the retired Navy ship that’s there open to the public. But I had no idea how big and how important the Bremerton shipyard was, and still is. Really appreciate you sharing this. Bucket list indeed.
Me too, Rob. Seen a few Navy ships on Puget Sound from my two boats. And I’ve stayed in that public Bremerton city marina 3 or 4 times, and went on board that Navy ship that’s open to the public. Heck fire, maybe you and I were there at the same time. That Navy museum (and the submarine museum) is really great if you’re ever in the area.
Sorry I’m late replying. But have to say I love that Thacher’s “calculating instrument”. You and I must have been in college and majoring in mathematics at about the same time … mid-1960’s? Two women in a miasma of men. I had one of those Thachers! I bet every engineer and architect had one. Your photos made my day. 🙂 Ok, I like the other stuff too, but that really made my day.
Jamie, no such thing as a late reply here. Especially when you are one of probably so few people who appreciate that Thacher’s “calculator”.
Yes, I was majoring in math and computer programming in 1966-68. But, holy cow, you HAD a Thacher’s?! Ok, this really makes MY day. 🙂