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Description
This is USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA, April 26, 2018, with Hospital Point in the background and the Museum complex to the left. This shot was taken from the multi-storey parking lot across the road. Look how high the ship rides in the water with all the stores, ammunition etc, removed.

The ship's nickname of 'Wisky' comes, not from shortening the name Wisconsin, but from the fact that the battleship collided with the destroyer USS Eaton in fog and the bow section had to be replaced with one taken from the incomplete Iowa class battleship Kentucky (Ky). Hence 'Wisky'. The construction of USS Kentucky, which would have been the sixth and final 'Iowa', was cancelled and the hull was later towed away and scrapped.

I have to say that I was less impressed with the Wisconsin than with the other preserved battleships. For a start, there was a particularly miserable elderly little man guarding the escalator to the museum who clearly didn't like Brits. Secondly and more importantly, you pay to go on the ship but then you have to pay an extra $20 for a 'guided tour' of the bridge and a further $20 for a 'guided tour' of the engine room, otherwise you are barred from going to these places if you are doing your own thing. Irv and I thought this was a bit naughty as it would have bumped up the admission price to over $50. We said 'no thanks'. None of the other preserved warships we visited pulled this trick and I hope my words here don't lead them to do so.......

Anyway, we saw it and toured some of the decks, so I suppose that's something. The Museum was good, and featured a large set of scales with a VW Beetle on one side and a 16" shell on the other to show the equivalent weight. So, yeah, all in all, worth going, despite the disappointment above.

Description
This is USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA, April 26, 2018, with Hospital Point in the background and the Museum complex to the left. This shot was taken from the multi-storey parking lot across the road. Look how high the ship rides in the water with all the stores, ammunition etc, removed.

The ship's nickname of 'Wisky' comes, not from shortening the name Wisconsin, but from the fact that the battleship collided with the destroyer USS Eaton in fog and the bow section had to be replaced with one taken from the incomplete Iowa class battleship Kentucky (Ky). Hence 'Wisky'. The construction of USS Kentucky, which would have been the sixth and final 'Iowa', was cancelled and the hull was later towed away and scrapped.

I have to say that I was less impressed with the Wisconsin than with the other preserved battleships. For a start, there was a particularly miserable elderly little man guarding the escalator to the museum who clearly didn't like Brits. Secondly and more importantly, you pay to go on the ship but then you have to pay an extra $20 for a 'guided tour' of the bridge and a further $20 for a 'guided tour' of the engine room, otherwise you are barred from going to these places if you are doing your own thing. Irv and I thought this was a bit naughty as it would have bumped up the admission price to over $50. We said 'no thanks'. None of the other preserved warships we visited pulled this trick and I hope my words here don't lead them to do so.......

Anyway, we saw it and toured some of the decks, so I suppose that's something. The Museum was good, and featured a large set of scales with a VW Beetle on one side and a 16" shell on the other to show the equivalent weight. So, yeah, all in all, worth going, despite the disappointment above.