Battleship Cove

Battleship Cove

Aerial view of Battleship Cove
Location within Massachusetts
Established	14 August 1965
Location	Fall River, Massachusetts
Type	Maritime museum
Public transit access	Southeastern Regional Transit Authority
Website	http://www.battleshipcove.org

Battleship Cove is a nonprofit maritime museum and war memorial in Fall River, Massachusetts. Featuring the world's largest collection of World War II naval vessels, it is home to the highly decorated battleship USS Massachusetts. It is located at the heart of the waterfront at the confluence of the Taunton River and Mount Hope Bay and lies partially beneath the Braga Bridge and adjacent to Fall River Heritage State Park.

The memorial traces its origins to the wartime crew of Massachusetts, who fought to save it from being broken up and ensure its preservation as a museum ship.

The battleship forms a small cove which serves as a protected harbor for pleasure craft during the summer months. The Fall River Yacht Club maintains a dock nearby. The site also contains the historic 1920 Lincoln Park Carousel, originally located at Lincoln Park in nearby North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, restored by local vocational high school students and installed in a new pavilion in the early 1990s.

Formally registered as the U.S.S. Massachusetts Memorial Committee, Inc., Battleship Cove was incorporated as a nonprofit educational organization and granted §501(c)(3) status by the Internal Revenue Service in 1964. Led by veterans who'd served aboard Massachusetts during World War II, the group was responsible for the U.S. Navy's donation of the decommissioned vessel and its subsequent public display.

In its first year open to the public, more than 250,000 visitors explored the ship. Soon after, the battleship was recognized as the official memorial to Massachusetts citizens who gave their lives in World War II and her interior spaces were reconfigured to accommodate exhibits.

In 1972, USS Lionfish, a World War II-era attack submarine, joined the battleship for public display. Also that year, the Nautical Nights overnight camping program commenced as a model program, enrolling more than 500,000 youths to date. The following year, USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., a Gearing-class destroyer, was added to the fleet and immediately designated as the Commonwealth’s official memorial to the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In keeping with this, USS Massachusetts was subsequently designated the Commonwealth's official memorial to veterans of the Gulf War.