These are photographs of my visit to the USS New Jersey Museum on 18 October 2025, which is about an hour away from my home.

I arrived at the Museum about 11:00 am, redeemed my digital ticket and went on board and did the self-guided tour for an hour. During this time I was mostly at Turret I and then down into the ship to see the Turret II stalk. These are the only tourist-accessible Main Gun mountings. I then went up to the bow of the ship to join my tour guide for one of the group tours. This took about 1.5 hours and covered much of the ship and its weapons. When the tour concluded, the tour guide offered to take anyone who wanted to go to see the shell decks of Turret II, but also go further down into the "restricted" areas at the Powder Handling Room level. After that, he asked if anyone wanted to go down in the lower decks of the boiler and engine rooms. Finally, a tour of the forecastle. I finished up a little before 4:00 pm, and then went into the visitor center where you can purchase souvenirs and the like.

Overall, an impressive job by the museum ship's staff and volunteers. Most areas are very clean, well lit and freshly painted. The paths for the self-guided tours are well marked and I could easily switch from one to the other to view various areas of interest. The interior of Turret I needs some work, but you can see that this is in progress with tools and partially finished sub-assemblies scattered in the back of the turret where the rangefinder used to be. My Tour Guide, an ex-Navy man, had been volunteering at the ship since 2008 and knew most areas on the ship very well.

If you are planning a trip, I would recommend doing what I did; wandering around by yourself for an hour to familiarize yourself with the ship and then taking one of the group tours for a more in-depth experience. Caution: Many steep stairways and "knee-knocker" hatches. If you are over 6 feet tall (1.8 m), then expect to suffer head bruises as you travel through the below-deck spaces.

28 October 2025 - New Essay
09 November 2025 - Fixed broken link
09 December 2025 - Corrected typographical error
23 January 2026 - Added photographs of ammunition passageway and 3-D Reduction Gear Model. Added comments on the Mark 8 Rangekeeper and paint inside the turrets