Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
Built
The last US battleship commissioned was christened by Margaret Truman
The keel was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 6 January 1941. Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry S. Truman, christened the ship at the launching. Completed in 1944, she is the last battleship commissioned by the United States.
The ship
She is 887 feet long and carried nine 16 inch guns in three turrets
Missouri is 887 feet 3 inches long overall. The main battery consisted of nine 16 in guns in three triple-gun turrets. By the end of the war in 1945 her crew numbered 189 officers and 2,978 sailors.
887 feetthe length of the ship overall, plus 3 inches
The surrender
A 23-minute ceremony on her deck ended World War II
Her quarterdeck was the site where the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on 2 September 1945. A courier brought the flag Commodore Matthew Perry had flown in 1853, to be displayed. General MacArthur opened the 23-minute ceremony at 09:02.
“...a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice.”
General Douglas MacArthur, opening the surrender ceremony
After the war
She ran aground in 1950, fought in Korea and was reactivated in 1984
In 1950 the ship ran aground during high tide in the Chesapeake Bay and was re-floated several weeks later. She fought in the Korean War and was decommissioned in 1955. She was reactivated and modernized in 1984 and served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Museum ship
She became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor after her donation in 1998
Missouri was decommissioned again in 1992, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1995. In 1998 she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Day 2, midday
It comes after Pearl Harbor National Memorial. Then Iolani Palace.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article USS Missouri (BB-63), and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.