2009-10 Winter Tana Tour, USS Alabama and USS Drum

USS Alabama

USS Drum

While in the Gulf Shores area one of the MUST see MUST do activities is a trip over to Mobile to see the USS Alabama Battleship and the USS Drum Submarine. Man and I spent the afternoon over there yesterday. The entry fee was reasonable ($10.00 when we presented our $2.00 discount coupon) and covered both ships and a Air Museum they have there.  There are no official tours. They hand you a very nicely organized 4 page guide so you can self guide yourself around the Alabama.  They allow photos anywhere and access to LOTS of the ship.  There are a few areas off limits, many of the displays are arranged behind grates and/or plexiglass, this of course, protects the displays. 

I took 208 photos, ya, I know, having too much fun! LOL. However, after deleting the not so good and lousy photos, I ended up with 177.

I was fascinated by the everyday living, the kitchen, the laundry, the bunks. Guns and engines and size of propellers, electrical systems, they interest Man. I took a few photos of "men" things, lots more of "living" things. I have put together a photo slide show here.  (No I did not load all 177, less than 30 photos are here.)  See below, in 2019, the photos were added to the post as slide shows no longer function.

Here is Man saluting, standing on one of the stairwells.  Stairs are quite steep (ole Carol did not like them much, shudder, shudder).

It was cold below deck, as you can tell from the winter cap Man had donned.

Battleship Memorial Park also has a number of memorials to those who have served Alabama and our country.  We spent some somber moments contemplating and honoring them.  One of the memorials resembles the POW Bracelet.  This sculpture has names and loss/recover dates of men from Alabama who were captured or declared MIA in Southeast Asia.

Our afternoon was educational and humbling, our tour ended here, at the Vietnam Veterans memorial, with the USS Alabama in the background.

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence.

On deck, USS Drum.

USS Drum, sleeping next to torpedos.  Not my cup of tea.

USS Drum, washing machine no more than 3 foot tall.

USS Drum, crew sleeping quarters.

USS Drum.  Compartment door, the opening was about 3 foot, it was all I could do to get my old, not very limber, body through these, and there were quite a few to go through.  These allow one compartment of the submarine to be shut off from other areas in case of fire or flooding.

USS Drum, opposite side of room in previous slide, lots of gauges.

USS Drum, the inner mechanical workings.  This room was overwhelming!

USS Drum, this is a 3 man berth/room.  Note sink is down, every thing is compact.  Back of chair is on right, there is some kind of a small desk there.   We live in a RV long time, but, I gotta tell you this gives me claustrophobia.

USS Drum, sink folds up, this was in a 2 man officer's state room.  They use every square inch of a submarine for something useful.

USS Drum, Seat and foot rests (on some of the guns we saw these foot rests were instrumental in moving the gun) on guns mounted on the deck.  They oil the guns down, they go under the sea just like this, and make sure they dump the water out when they surface.  We were told guns manufactured from special metal to withstand the salt water.

USS Drum

USS Alabama

USS Alabama, BIG guns!

USS Alabama

USS Alabama

USS Alabama, Crew member storage locker.

USS Alabama, Left is a printer, and look at those cameras!  Again, note, they sleep where they work.

USS Alabama, Laundry

USS Alabama, Barber Shop and barber sleeping bunks, same room.

USS Alabama, Barber shop

USS Alabama, Crew sleeping bunks

USS Alabama, Church

USS Alabama, Marine Supply area

USS Alabama, LOTS more dishes stored here.

Imagining dinner aboard the USS Alabama.

USS Alabama, Crew dining area

USS Alabama, Kitchen and food serving tables (heated by hot water pipes)

USS Alabama, Dishes for Crew

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