Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum

We recently visit Charleston and made our way to the Patriots Point Navel & Maritime museum. In full honesty this place was not on my original list of activities. When I did all my “Things to do in Charleston” searches it never came up on any of those lists. I’m going to assume that maybe that’s because it’s not directly in Charleston. It’s located across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. bridge in Mt. Pleasant. My Dad actually told us about it a few day before we left. He had visited on a previous trip and highly suggested we add it to our list.

USS Yorktown

I’m glad he did because it was so interesting and we had a great time spending our morning touring the boats and learning the stories of the men who lived/served on them.

The museum is made up on three wartime ships. The first one is the the USS Laffey, a destroyer that served during WWII. The ship looks small from the outside, but once you step on board and make your way down through its storied levels it’s anything but small. Your tour takes you all through the four different levels of living and working space. The ship is a self guided tour but they do a great job of making the displays very informative. There’s a few rooms that are set up with a show to make you feel what it was like to be in the middle of the action.

USS Laffey

This mighty ship earned the name “The Ship That Would Not Die” for its efforts during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when it successfully withstood a massive attack by conventional bombers and the most agressive kamikaze air attack in history. Those efforts earned its status as a National Historic Landmark and its place at Patriots Point.

The second ship is the USS Clamagore, a Cold War submarine that served for 30 years. I found this tour so fascinating because I can’t imagine life on a submarine. The ship was 307 ft and housed a crew of 80 men. Not only were these men living under water, but can you imagine sleeping next to the on board missiles?

USS Clamagore

The doorways between chambers were small and hard to climb through. The hallway was barely 3 feet wide and full of levers and buttons. It is such and eye opening experience being on board.

The small openings between each chamber of the submarine

The main attraction of the museum is the USS Yorktown, an Essex-class air craft carrier. This ship was named after the battle of Yorktown of the American Revolutionary war. This ship first server during WWII, but after the war it was updated and recommissioned for service during the Korean war and Vietnam war. Its final decommission was in 1970 and it became a museum ship in 1975.

USS Yorktown

There’s so much to do on board this ship. There are over 25 different war time aircraft on display throughout the main level of the ship. A few of the planes allow you to climb inside the cockpit. For even more flight experience you can take a ride in a flight simulator or climb inside an Apollo 8 replica for a trip to the moon.

BONUS: Once you reach the top lever the view across the harbor of the Charleston skyline and the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is beautiful!

There are four different tour paths that take you down inside the bottom levels of the ship and show you everything from the control room, infirmary, ships chapel, sleeping quarters, to the steam room.

Controls in the Steam rooms

We only had time to tour the three ships before heading out, but there are tons of additional things you can do. Before we even walked into the main building there was a spot for helicopter rides and boat tours of the harbor. There is a Vietnam experience exhibit and the Medal of Honor museum. They have additional options from kid’s groups sleeping on board, ghost tours that take you to of off limits parts of the ships, or you could even host an event on board.

There was literally something for everyone to enjoy. I highly recommend adding this to you tour next time your in Charleston.



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