Missouri's lower decks open to public
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central OÎahu Writer
The public for the first time was allowed to peek inside 56 years of history aboard the USS Missouri's lower decks yesterday as part of expanded tours aboard the famed battleship .
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Some of the sections of the ship were never viewed by civilians, even during the Navy's open-house periods," said USS Missouri Memorial Association tour guide Phil Lingenfelter.
USS Missouri tour guide Phil Lingenfelter helped to show the brig area, which was opened to the public yesterday.
The association's action yesterday opened up an additional 25 percent of the Missouri and marked Phase 2 of the Missouri Memorial Association's plan to eventually open up about 70 percent of the ship to the public. Visitors now can view not only the teak decks and trademark 16-inch guns, but also such personal areas as the ship's brig (capacity of 15 people, with individual and joint cells), laundry room, barber shop (complete with spinning barber pole and four swivel chairs) and post office (with a service window and a nearby sign reminding that "Loose lips sink ships").
The tour also showcases the ship's gun battery plot — nerve center of the Missouri's firepower — and four engine rooms and firerooms — the heart of its electrical power.
In all, about 40 percent of the ship is now open for public inspection.
But viewing history doesn't come cheap, particularly for a nonprofit association trying to keep the Missouri afloat financially. Visitors wanting to take the 90-minute "Explorer's Tour," which includes a meal and ship "passport," will have to pay an additional $35 on top of the normal admission fee of $14 per adult and $7 per child for self-guided tours.
Lingenfelter said what's funny about the new tour is that the places being shown are areas "the sailors at the time were trying to avoid, like the brig."
"But the lower decks are what the visitors have been asking about the most," he said. "If you're an expert on battleships, it's what you want to see."
Visitor Dave Biddiscombe of Minneapolis — armed with flashlight, safety helmet and water — was part of the first group enjoying the expanded tours, and said it provided a better understanding of the ship.
"I have even more respect now for what these sailors went through after seeing where some of them were stationed," Biddiscombe said.
One of the tour highlights is the ship's "broadway," a football field-long passageway that runs between the Missouri's gun turrets No. 2 and 3, and connects with the entrances to the ship's four engine rooms and four firerooms. The battleship's eight boilers — three stories high and which provided 212,000 horsepower for the 45,000-ton ship — were actually ignited using cigarette lighters a couple of hours before the ship was to sail, Lingenfelter said.
Another tour stop expected to draw interest is the ship's gun battery plot with its mechanical analog supercomputers installed in 1943. Displayed throughout the Missouri is cartoon artwork created by Missouri sailors to commemorate campaigns and keep up morale.
Before the opening of the expanded tour areas to the public, the Missouri had to be refurbished and pass environmental tests, said Don Hess, the Missouri Memorial Association's executive vice president and chief operating officer.
The association plans to expand the tour to remaining ship areas, including the entirety of all four engine rooms and the ship's superstructure, Hess said.
He said the number of visitors to the battleship is gradually getting back to normal after a decline caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but business is still off about 10 percent. Because of heightened security at Pearl Harbor, the historic battleship was closed for eight days after Sept. 11, resulting in a loss of about $100,000.
Hess said the battleship attracted about 25,000 visitors in December 2001, compared with 28,000 visitors for December 2000.
Since the Missouri reopened, tour buses are no longer allowed across the Ford Island Bridge to access the battleship, with visitors instead taking scheduled trolleys from the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum near the USS Arizona Memorial.
While the Missouri is best known as the site of the formal Japanese surrender during World War II, fueling some of the latest interest in the Missouri is the heightened patriotism after the terrorist attacks.
"Definitely," Hess said. "With the current situation, people recently visiting the Missouri and Arizona Memorial say they want a better understanding of what we went through in previous conflicts."
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
