USS Massachusetts
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USS Massachusetts is an attraction in Massachusetts, at a modelled elevation of 0 m. Copicut Hill stands 109 m to the east, 5.4 miles off. The nearest named place is USS Hiddensee, a attraction less than a tenth of a mile away. Route 114 and High Street passes 6.0 miles off.
The story
USS Massachusetts, hull number BB-59, is the third of four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch (406 mm) guns, but refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t). A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships, a problem that was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews. On completion, Massachusetts was sent to support Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, in November 1942. There, she engaged in an artillery duel with the incomplete French battleship Jean Bart and neutralized her. Massachusetts thereafter transferred to the Pacific War for operations against Japan; she spent the war primarily as an escort for the fast carrier task force to protect the aircraft carriers from surface and air attacks. In this capacity, she took part in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in 1943 and early 1944 and the Philippines campaign in late 1944 and early 1945. Later in 1945, the ship supported Allied forces during the Battle of Okinawa and thereafter participated in attacks on Japan, including bombarding industrial targets on Honshu in July and August. After the war, Massachusetts returned to the United States and was decommissioned and assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk in 1947. She remained out of service until 1962, when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. Three years later, she was transferred to the Massachusetts Memorial Committee and preserved as a museum ship at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. Some material was removed in the 1980s to reactivate the Iowa-class battleships, but the ship otherwise remains in her wartime configuration.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wikidata Q2364733, referenced by the OpenStreetMap record.
What the record says
- Built
- 1941
How to reach it
- 6.0 mi off the Route 114 and High Street
- 6.0 mi off the Revolutionary Heritage Byway, National
- 12.0 mi off the Veteran's Memorial Parkway
- 13.7 mi off the Paradise Ave and Other Roads
Overlooks nearby
- Gaspee Point Overlook · 12 mi
- Prospect Terrace Viewpoint · 15 mi
- Lookout Point · 22 mi
- Sunset Ledge · 25 mi
Named places within 25 miles
- Fall River Heritage State Park: 0.2 mi
- Turner Playground: 0.3 mi
- Heritage Park: 0.3 mi
- Gates of the City: 0.4 mi
- Senator Thomas Norton City Pier: 0.4 mi
- Portas Da Cidade: 0.3 mi
- Early Warren and the start of King Philip's War: 5.2 mi
- In Memory of Hugh Cole: 5.3 mi
- Latham Cornell Monument: 5.8 mi
- Warren Vietnam Memorial: 6.0 mi
- Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River: 0.5 mi
- Pokanoket Tribal lands: 4.3 mi
- Bristol Train of Artillery Museum: 6.2 mi
- Bristol County Courthouse: 6.2 mi
- Bristol Art Museum: 6.3 mi
- Brayton Point Beach: 1.2 mi
- Swansea Town Beach: 3.2 mi
- Pierce Beach: 4.3 mi
- Juniper Trail Beach: 4.3 mi
- Grinnell's Beach: 6.3 mi
- Brayton Point Salt Marsh: 1.2 mi
- Un-Named: 2.5 mi
- Chace Preserve: 2.7 mi
- Blackledge: 2.7 mi
- Birch Stevens Farm: 2.9 mi
- Fox Hill: 1.9 mi
- Townsend Hill: 2.5 mi
- Townsend Hill: 2.5 mi
- Cook Hill: 3.4 mi
- Pocasset Hill: 4.0 mi
- USS Hiddensee: 0.0 mi
- USS Lionfish: 0.1 mi
- USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.: 0.1 mi
- Battleship Cove: 0.1 mi
- Old Colony & Fall River Railroad Museum: 0.2 mi
- Commonwealth Park "Green Monstah" Mural: 0.9 mi
- John Muir Ecological Pier: 3.7 mi
- Rachel Carson Ecological Pier: 3.8 mi
- Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Ecological Pier: 3.8 mi
- Wes Jackson Ecological Pier: 3.9 mi
- Woodcart Garden: 7.9 mi
- Helfand Farm Community Gardens: 10.4 mi
- Fragrance Gardens: 12.1 mi
- Herb Garden: 12.5 mi
- Rotch- Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum: 13.2 mi
- Site #36: 19.7 mi
- Little Beach: 20.7 mi
- Big Beach: 20.7 mi
- 4: 21.6 mi
- 6: 21.6 mi
- Ferry Cliff: 6.4 mi
- Tree Point Rocks: 6.7 mi
- Usher Rocks: 7.4 mi
- King Phillips Lookout: 14.2 mi
- The Bluff: 16.3 mi
- Rest Area I-195 (East Bound): 5.5 mi
- Rest Area I-195 (West Bound): 5.8 mi
- Rest Area I-95 (South Bound): 21.4 mi
- Bike Trail Parking - Rest Area: 21.7 mi
- Rest Area I-295 (North Bound): 21.7 mi
- Roger Williams Spring: 15.4 mi
- Elizabeth Spring: 15.7 mi
- Crystal Spring: 17.1 mi
- Plum Point Spring: 17.9 mi
- East Greenwich Falls: 15.8 mi
- Payne's Pond Falls: 15.9 mi
- The Falls: 19.5 mi
- Cascade Brook Falls: 24.0 mi
- Clark's Point Light: 15.6 mi
- Beavertail Light: 21.6 mi
- 1755 Lighthouse Foundation: 21.6 mi
Summits around it
The highest named summits within 14.0 miles of USS Massachusetts. Elevation from each summit’s own record; bearing measured between the two coordinates.
| Summit | Bearing | Elevation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copicut Hill | E 79° | 109 m | 5.4 mi |
| Pocasset Hill | SSW 202° | 95 m | 4.0 mi |
| Slate Hill | SSW 205° | 87 m | 12.7 mi |
| Cook Hill | SSW 202° | 85 m | 3.4 mi |
| Great Meadow Hill | NNW 347° | 78 m | 12.2 mi |
| Townsend Hill | SSW 205° | 77 m | 2.5 mi |
| Townsend Hill | SSW 206° | 77 m | 2.5 mi |
| Great Rock | NNW 329° | 71 m | 12.3 mi |
When to go
Light through the year
| Date | Sunrise | Golden hour | Sunset |
|---|---|---|---|
| March equinox | 06:49 | 18:20 | 18:57 |
| June solstice | 05:11 | 19:41 | 20:23 |
| September equinox | 06:33 | 18:07 | 18:44 |
| December solstice | 07:09 | 15:33 | 16:18 |
Local time (America/New_York).
Climate normals
Months averaging 50–80 °F: May–Oct.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg °F | 31 | 33 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 69 | 75 | 74 | 67 | 55 | 45 | 36 |
| Precip in | 4.0 | 3.8 | 5.6 | 4.5 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.0 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4.9 |
1991–2020 U.S. Climate Normals, NOAA NCEI — Tiverton, 6 mi away.
Where this comes from
Location and category confirmed against OpenStreetMap.
National Register of Historic Places, reference 76002269OpenStreetMapWikipediaWikidata- National Register of Historic Places — USS MASSACHUSETTS (BB-59) National Historic Landmark, reference 76002269, listed 09/30/76.
OpenStreetMap element way/166261068
Day trips start here
- Fall River · 1 mi
- Swansea · 3 mi
- Somerset · 5 mi
- Bristol County · 6 mi
- Bristol · 6 mi
- Tiverton · 6 mi
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