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The USS Missouri is 108 feet 2 inches wide and built to traverse the Panama Canal which is 110 feet wide. In the Canal, the Missouri had 11 inches of clearance on each side.
Mary Margaret Truman christened the USS Missouri on January 29, 1944. She was the daughter of the then junior Senator Harry S. Truman from the state of Missouri.
From its keel to the top of her mast, the USS Missouri is as tall as a 20-story building. She is a total 209 feet 3 inches tall.
Theoretical top speed for the USS Missouri is 33 knots or almost 40 miles per hour. She never actually reached that speed although once her skipper took her to 32.5 knots for a short time.
Whenever the USS Missouri crossed the Equator, the crew would have a Crossing the Line ceremony. King Neptune (the ceremony officiator) and shellbacks (Sailors who previously crossed the equatorial line), initiated the pollywogs (Sailors crossing for the first time).
The USS Missouri has never had a combat death aboard her decks. Between wars, one skipper and Captain Edsall suffered a heart attack, dying on the Bridge while in command.
When the family of President Harry S. Truman were on board, they made it a practice to eat at least one meal a day with the crew in the Crew’s Mess, a practice that was very popular among the men.
The USS Missouri has three gun turrets with three guns each. The 16-inch guns were the largest ever installed on a Navy ship.
Each gun weighs 230,000 pounds, or about as much as a space shuttle. Two guns together weigh about as much as a fully loaded Boeing 747.
Each Navy battleship carried a detachment of Marines on board. The Marines were the “policemen” of the ship. They also ran the brig or jail.
During World War II, the USS Missouri launched spotter seaplanes from two catapults on the stern of the ship. Upon returning, the planes would land on the flat sea behind the ship and a crane would lift them to the deck.
The USS Arizona and the USS Missouri are known as the “bookends” of America’s involvement in World War II. Today, the two ships stand bow to bow, with the Missouri standing guard over her little sister, the Arizona.
Today, the USS Missouri hosts several military ceremonies, including re-enlistments, retirements and change of command.
The USS Missouri was truly the end of an era. She was the very last battleship of any nation to be decommissioned.
The USS Missouri’s big guns are aimed based upon the commands of an analog computer first designed in the 1920s, first built in the 1930s and installed in the Iowa-class ships in the mid-1940s.
Each turret of the USS Missouri was manned by 77 to 110 men working in the turret and on five decks below the turret.
The USS Missouri earned three battle stars in World War II. She earned five battle stars in the Korean War during two deployments.
Although it looks like one, the USS Missouri is no longer a Navy ship. It is owned by the USS Missouri Memorial Association, an organization designated by the Navy to care for the ship and its history.
The USS Missouri’s four engine rooms can generate 212,000 horsepower moving forward and 44,000 going astern.
Three American Presidents have boarded the Battleship Missouri: President Harry S. Truman in 1947, and Presidents George H. W. Bush Sr. and George W. Bush, Jr. after the Battleship Missouri became a memorial.
The total number of meals served during both active commissioning periods is approximately 40,615,000 meals.

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Come see the last standing battleship from World War II and uncover her life through three major wars.

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Coming soon! This May the Battleship Missouri Memorial will launch Battleship the Movie Tour which features movie clips and sites from the NBC Universal film Battleship.

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